5 Steps to Do What You Love (Finally)

Can you hear it? There’s a voice inside your head. It might new, small and intermittent. Or it may be an old voice that’s become much louder and insistent.

When you ignore a calling, it has a tendency to keep bugging you until you shut it down or embrace it.

Artist, coach and author Leah Badertscher had a successful law practice. But she felt like she was pretending. In her heart of hearts, she knew she was an artist. There was just one problem: she had a law degree, no formal art training, and no art!

Leah’s inner dialogue told her she was crazy to pursue this passion full time. But the voice persisted. Today, Leah is an artist who helps other visionaries take their passion to the next level.

If you’re ready to finally do what you love, Leah has 5 steps to help:

1. Listen to yourself

Right here and now, you’re at a turning point. You can either turn up that voice or you can tune it out. But if you tune it out, there will be a piece of you that always wonders. That’s a guarantee.

There are a lot of voices out there that can sway you this way or that. But there’s only one voice that matters: yours.

There’s nothing more concrete than knowing what you want. So drown out the what if’s and the how’s. Drown out the outside and listen to yourself. Your heart of hearts is your best guide.

2. Find your focus

When it comes to their passions, people generally fall into 2 categories: the unilateral, all-encompassing kind and the multi-passionate person. That’s because some people have an overwhelming drive and focus in one area while others have more than one interest that calls them. Both are okay!

However, it’s important that you start out by knowing your focus.

Once you do, can stay on track by working to cultivate a state of abundance. This is particularly important for the multi-passionate person. That’s because with more than one interest, you may find yourself pulled in too many directions at once.

This happens if you’re in a place of scarcity. With more than one interest, you don’t want to miss out on anything. And today’s culture sends a message that you’re falling behind if you don’t do all the things. This just isn’t true.

To stay motivated, learn to recognize if something is coming from a scarce place or from your inner voice. If it’s the latter, keep listening.

3. Take the long view

In order to live out your passion, you’ll need to look past the starting line to the road ahead. This requires a bi-focalism:

• Actively cultivate what you’re doing in the moment
• Think about what’s to come

So get started! But don’t get discouraged when you bumps in the road. Is your latest painting a flop? Are you stuck on chapter 3 of your literary masterpiece? Stop, take a breath, and look down the road. With the long view in mind, keep working anyway.

4. Build on your failures

Guess what? If you try, you’re going to stumble and fall, no matter how talented or driven you are. But you can learn so much from failure. Messing up gives you the opportunity to do it better next time. If you build on your failures, you will eventually find success.

True heroics happen when you don’t have anything to show for it.

That’s right. You’ll work harder and stay committed if you don’t feel like you’re winning. Don’t worry about rewards, accolades, or even immediate results. Let your failures build up and use them to reach your goals.

5. Don’t underestimate yourself

Lastly, as you start to find success, don’t forget to keep listening to your inner voice.

After all, you have the power to define who you are and what you can contribute to the world.

The journey doesn’t end when you finally say yes – in fact, it’s just the beginning!