7 Ways to Make Your Heart Sing

Over the past couple of weeks I have written about the 7 Ways to Find the Work that Makes Your Heart Sing.  Today I just wanted to summarize each of the keys areas I talked about in one concise blog post--Enjoy!

Get Out of Your Rut.  Shake it up!  Get out of your day to day patterns and try something different. Because too frequently we get so stuck in the schedule and the pattern we forget what it is that we really love...what really matters to us...what we are passionate about. We get trapped in the to dos, the obligations, meeting other people's needs and expectations we forget to look at our own heart and passions.  Changing it up reminds us of what if feels like to take risks, to spontaneously laugh, to the ideas and people that bring us passion and make our heart sing!!!

Treat Your Life Like a Mystery Novel:  In order to figure out what makes your heart sing--you need to start viewing your life as a great mystery that needs to be unraveled and explored.  You need to get curious about your own life.  Start investigating, start exploring, start unraveling you.  As you go through your day--pay attention, do some investigating. Dig deep, ask one question then ask another and pay attention to the themes and patterns that come up for you.

Have a Little A LOT of Self Compassion. As you go through this process...stuff comes up, (and by stuff I mean: dreams, ideas, thoughts, plans) maybe it is stuff you have forgotten about, maybe it is stuff you convinced yourself was wrong, maybe it is stuff you just never even thought of.  Starting now we are going to great those ideas with self compassion and love.  Take notes, write it down, pay attention to what comes up for you.  What ideas, thoughts, plans are the scariest?  What are the most ridiculous, which ones have you built the most excuses around (those are all usually signs that you are on to something!!)

Get Creative: Merging Your Dreams with Your Reality  Up to this point you have been dreaming big, looking at your life in new and different ways, figuring out what you value, what you love, what makes you tick.  Now we are going to merge those dreams with the reality of your life, your family, partner, kids, bills, mortgage etc.  Remember, just because you don't have the time, energy or resources RIGHT NOW for your dream, doesn't mean you have to give up or are destined to live a life not having your heart sing.  You can merge both ideas--you just need to get a little creative!!

Face the Fear Throughout this process of finding the work that makes your heart sing.  Fear will come up--I believe we each have a Fear Monger inside of us.  A part of us who's job it is to protect us, keep us safe and minimize risks. Pay attention to the message she/he tends to send and when he/she tends to come out the most.  The fear monger is clever and tends to pop up in a variety of ways speaking to our value system, "you can't do that it will take too much time away from the kids"; "you can't go back to school, what about the money?"  Dealing with fear is a process, when we know our big picture (why we want to get out of our comfort zone), and our action steps we can bless our Fear Monger along the way and live happier lives.

You Can't Do it Alone. Bottom line you need other people to help you achieve the work that makes your heart sing.  You need support, connection, and contacts.  Reaching out to people, sharing our dreams, fears, and needs is challenging.  So take baby steps, open up a little at a time--start with the 'safe' people you can trust with your dreams:  friends, partners, family. Then slowly start expanding your group to acquaintances, friends of friends, people in the community. Pick one person and share your dreams, share what you need.  Ask.

Rinse and Repeat: This is a Process  Unfortunately, it is not a plug-and-play game where you punch in your skills, interests, values and out comes your ideal work. Because we are human, we are complex and emotional.  This is your life, which is an on-going, constantly changing, entity.  So finding that work that makes your heart sing, is challenging, exhausting and can be down right hard.  AND it is exhilarating, life altering, and game changing.  Doing the work that makes your heart sing is why we are here.  Figuring out how to live the best life possible, how to share your gifts and life from your heart is, in my opinion, the point.

I can guarantee, if you live your life from the concept that finding the work that makes your heart sing is an process of these 7 ideas on repeat you will LIVE AND WORK HAPPIER.

So there you have it---my 7 ways. Let me know what your think...send me an e-mail at nancy@nancyjanesmith.com or just leave a comment below!!