The world needs you to follow your heart.
You have an internal dissatisfaction. You have an ache. You have a dream that you are not realizing.
Maybe you wanna start a business, lose weight, write a book, learn another language, learn to play an instrument, start a band, learn to code, sell all your belongings and do an around the world trip, go back to school, quit your job, break up with a romantic partner… whatever. Your heart is telling you to move in this direction, listen to it.
Following your heart is scary.
It can seem like you’re stepping off a cliff. You’ll need to learn to control that fear.
There are two voices in your head. One that dreams. And one that fears. The fearful one tries to keep you safe. The dreamy one is the one telling you to follow your heart. The fearful one says things like:
What will other people think?
The voice you have listened to the most is the one you will hear the loudest. So if you’ve always listened to the fearful voice, consider listening to the calm, quiet, patient voice for once. She speaks quietly with gentle nudges. She’s the one that says:
It would be so cool if I could…
She encourages you to do the uncomfortable thing. The thing that you kinda wanna do but are timid to do.
Following your heart voice always requires more discipline, not less. BUT it’s easier than that gross feeling of being lazy when you know there is more out there for you to live. When you learn to follow your heart you become excited and full of motivation. Not 100% of the time, but often enough to do hard stuff.
“God wants you to walk but the Devil sends a limo.” ~Val Kilmer
There’s a whole life out there to live. Don’t wile it away on anesthetizing yourself on consumer crap, the next phone/car/shoes/video game etc. There is a whole industry out there dedicated to making you feel less than who you are and to make you want to buy products. What you have is enough. Who you are is enough. You possess the power to change the world if you are willing to let go of material possessions and follow the call.
**LET ME BE CLEAR If you are quitting your job, walking away from a marriage, moving to another country, selling all your stuff … because you are avoiding doing the hard work/therapy/pay off bills/dealing with an addiction etc. in order to hold your life together. You are not following your heart. You are running away. These are very different.**
Read The War of Art by Stephen Pressfield.
Read The War of Art by Stephen Pressfield.
Read The War of Art by Stephen Pressfield.
To anyone who is not you, following your heart seems crazy.
Some people will support you, some will not.
It essentially breaks down into who has followed their dreams in the past and who has been too afraid to follow their own dreams. The first will support you, the second will not.
The second group will try to download their own fears into you about following your dream. THIS IS THEIR FEAR, NOT YOURS. You have enough of your own fear to overcome, don’t pay attention to those folks.
Even if it’s your mom. Especially if it’s your mom.
Sorry mom.
Moms love us and just want what’s best for us. They can’t help it.
Love you mom!
You will find the others.
The other people who also follow their hearts will start to appear in your life and cheer you on. You will hear their crazy stories of taking a chance and triumphing. Some have taken a chance and crashed and burned but then pivoted and then triumphed!
Some people will be inspired by you and begin to follow their own dreams.
My quick story:
I lived in Rio for 6 months last year from October 2022 to April 2023. I just arrived again 4 days ago in Rio for my second round. Both times before leaving I got scared and almost backed out. Both times I had a friend who supported me who came through and gave me a swift kick in the pants.
First friend: After giving Jimmy Biala my long list of excuses why I couldn’t go to Rio last July he said to me, (I’m paraphrasing) “Courtney, just take care of the details, talk to whoever you gotta talk to, do whatever it is you gotta do to make this happen.” He was right.
Second friend: This year it was Yanira Cardenas who talked me out of a spiral just before quitting my job and gave me some “Premium Grade Fuel” for my rocketship to get back on course and out to orbit.
Those two humans are precious to me. I love you both, thank you!
Last year, I followed my curiosity to Brazil. I wanted to learn more about the cradle of samba. Through making friends and just being curious I got to play in a Grupo Especial Samba School bateria. How insane is that. Then, that school (Imperatriz Leopoldinense) ended up winning the whole f’ing carnava! I had no idea that that would happen much less that I would ever be able to play with a samba school in Rio. And a grupo especial school?! If I had stayed in Portland too afraid to ask for what I wanted out of life, this life changing experience would not have happened for me.
Shoutout to Imperatriz Leopoldinense community. You guys are amazing! You all have no idea how much you mean to me. Or maybe you do. I see the love you have for the presence of the other. Thank you for this gift.
Your dream doesn’t need to makes sense right now.
The point of your dream doesn’t matter or even need to make sense. It doesn’t need to make money, you don’t need to be the best there ever was at it. The point is that YOU matter and what you want matters, just start. But you have to be willing to stop watching Netflix and get off your bee-hinde, have some dicipline and do stuff.
In 2008, after taking an 8 year break I started practicing drums again. I didn’t know why. I was just drawn to it. I missed drumming.
I had no idea that it would lead to this:
There’s a whole life out there to live. Don’t wile it away on anesthetizing yourself on consumer crap, the next phone/car/gadget/shoes/video game etc. There is a whole industry out there dedicated to making you feel bad about yourself, abandon yourself and to make you want to buy their products to feel better about it all. Buying stuff doesn’t work. Because the ache is bigger than an object.
Free yourself from this cycle. What you have is enough. Who you are is enough. You possess the power to change the world if you are willing to let go of material possessions and comforts and follow the call.
This way of living is hard.
Stay inspired. Find people, songs, books, movies, talks, podcasts that keep you inspired. It’s hard but honestly it’s so much more fun than living a drone-like unfulfilled life of censored art, laugh track comedy and corporate approved fun.
Be still and listen.
You know what you want. It’s probably scary. When it’s scary it means you're on the right path!
The world needs you.
The world needs you to have discipline, to do the self-work and to follow your dreams and this will change the world for the better.
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