How can you tell if you're truly following your passion or barking up the wrong tree?

You might have heard about the importance of tuning into what lights you up. But you might not know that passion is the language of your Higher Self. It's a message from a part of you with a broader perspective.

That broader perspective includes your spirit and soul. Passion (curiosity, interest, excitement) is a mapping system showing you the best way to get from where you are to where you want to be. Spirit contains that bird's eye view that your physical perspective doesn't. It can see things that you might not through your physical mind. 

But your physical body can help you figure out which way to go. The body translates messages using hormones. Hormones help create your feelings. When you feel stressed, for example, you have more detectable amounts of adrenaline and cortisol pumping through your veins. When you feel happy, you have more identifiable serotonin and dopamine. The different hormones create different sensations.

Your Higher Self wants you to know that when you feel good, this is a clue that you're following the best path for the present moment. Others might try to dissuade you from believing that life is meant to be enjoyable; they are misguided.

Life is intended to be fun. You are not here to suffer, barely making it through each day.

You can trust your feelings. You can trust yourself.

"If you follow your bliss, you put yourself on a kind of track that has been there all the while, waiting for you, and the life you ought to be living is the one you are living. Wherever you are -- if you are following your bliss, you are enjoying that refreshment, that life within you, all the time."

—Joseph Campbell

You can take action out of fear, doubt, or a sense of missing out. Many people live their entire lives hating their jobs and doing things they think they should do instead of doing what they enjoy. Generally speaking, living from a sense of obligation or malaise is common because we're trained to believe it's logical.

Generations before us encouraged us to be "practical" and logical. They told us to work hard, pray, and with some luck, we might make something out of ourselves—in time.

They also said only a few get lucky, so don't bet on living a life you truly love. "Life is tough," they said. Pick "practical" jobs, and consider yourself lucky if you make something of your life.

If you are confused about whether or not you're following your true passion or barking up the wrong tree, understand the difference between persistence and insistence. Let's begin with insistence.

Insistence

It's common to hear talk of goals and their benefits. "Set BIG goals!" is standard advice. If goal setting works for you, keep doing it. The problem with goal setting occurs when you insist the result has to be specific on a randomly selected date.

Spending hours dreaming about how life could be and getting emotionally invested in a specific vision can slow things down .... if you're insistent on that particular outcome and feel negative.

If you can think about what you want to happen and remain positive, you can afford to be insistent. However, most people find this task impossible. At some point, for some reason or another, your emotions will vary. It's impossible not to experience various emotions when working toward a future event.

Negative emotions are anything from fear, anxiety, depression, worry, or anger. It's common to feel negative when you set a goal that doesn't transpire or encounter a setback. [Google "emotional scale of resonance" for examples, or refer to my chart.]

I once worked with a guy featured in The Secret movie. If I had a nickel for every time he advised us to set a "bigger" goal hammering on the idea that we "had to get emotionally invested" in the dream or it would not work.

On the surface, it's sound advice. Dream big and think positively. Sounds easy, right?

But what happens if you insist that your dream manifest precisely as you envisioned and on the date picked? Insistence obscures how it's showing up—now. You miss the infinite variety of ways relevant experiences are being provided by the universe today.

How do you get goal setting to work more consistently? Don't be so insistent that it has to happen in a specific way. Pay attention to how you feel. Are you getting frustrated because you want something specific to happen, and it's not? Frustration might be a sign you've misunderstood the purpose of visualization.

Soften your insistence. Broaden your ideas about what the outcome might be. Become curious about how it will show up when the time is right. Remove the time and date stamp from your vision.

Visualization is designed to help you get excited about an idea, not predict a specific future. The more you insist, the more you experience stress and worry because what you thought was supposed to happen didn't. The more you lock in on one thing happening, the more likely you'll miss the experiences already here—explicitly meant for you.

The beauty of dreaming about possible outcomes and being easy about the process is you realize the plethora of "lessons" you learn along the way. The universe and your Higher Self are conspiring to help you realize everything you want, not just the one thing you labeled your goal.

The excitement (passion) about the initial goal was a way to get you to focus and start moving in the most straightforward direction.

Spend a few seconds tuning into the idea that you don't need to predict the future to experience magnificent things. Now go back to the thought that you must figure it all out.

Feel the difference? One is expansive, and one of contractive. One thought feels free and open, and the other feels heavy and closed.

Life is really simple. Yet, we insist on making it complicated.

Persistence

Why does one person continue the journey while another gives up? Persistence. But since every idea can be utilized positively and negatively, let's examine persistence from both approaches.

What creates the experience of persistence? Many things. Some of them are joy, fun, curiosity, and interest.

You can invoke the idea of persistence from a negative standpoint, but it's hardly sustainable long term. Negative energy is draining. It wears you down mentally, physically, emotionally, and spiritually.

Persisting from jealousy, anger, or FOMO is not sustainable. These contractive feelings wear you out and make life more difficult and uncomfortable than it has to be. Not to mention from you persist from a place of lack, it's most likely a sign that you're on the wrong path.

Life is supposed to feel good and be fun. Passion is a sign from your Nonphysical self to your physical self that this is the direction you're meant to go.

Being persistent with positive energy allows you to carry on indefinitely. Positive energy is expansive, rejuvenates, and invigorates. You naturally persist when following your passion from a place of excitement.

Persistence involves moving around obstacles. You'll inevitably wear down if you're pushing through from a negative standpoint. Resistance—mental, emotional, physical, spiritual, never gets easier.

Persisting from positive energy is easy. It allows you to access solutions faster than you would have otherwise.

The definition of persistence: firm or obstinate continuance in a course of action despite difficulty or opposition.

We all must face the fact that physical life in this time-space reality is full of contrast. There are always going to be problems to overcome and challenges to face. Without contrast, there would be no further clarity.

Clarity is WHY we are here. We choose to project our consciousness into this time-space reality for the purpose of knowing ourselves from a new POV and gaining clarity.

Persisting in the face of challenges is much easier when you love what you're working toward and don't insist it has to two our a specific way.

How do you know if you're truly following your passion or barking up the wrong tree? Get honest with yourself and determine whether you're acting from an energy of insistence or persistence.

Insistence means trying to make something happen because you think it's supposed to be a certain way. Because you can visualize an idea, you think that's what's supposed to manifest. Maybe, but maybe not.

Visualization is not about predicting the future. It's about feeling good. If your thoughts no longer feel good, you're heading down the more difficult path. Your true passion will invoke persistence from a place of positive, sustainable energy.

Persisting with positive energy means you love what you're doing and are willing to stay the course no matter what happens. This is how you know you're following your true passion.

Authentic passion feels good, not bad. It invokes synchronicity to help you find the most enjoyable route from here to there. It assists you in solving challenges in quick, innovative ways because there will always be more challenges. It's not about living without them. It's about following your bliss so your life is what it's intended to be.

My friend, life is not meant to be complicated. With some focused attention, you can determine whether you are making life more difficult by insisting on specific outcomes. Or, you can joyfully live a passionate life where you persist because you love what you're doing.