The Importance of Doing What You Love(and succeeding at it)

I haven’t written in my diary for a few months because the truth is, I don’t want to just write about bs, I want to write about things that matter to us earthlings.

Success matters. And not just for the usual reasons you're told.

In Western civilization most people consider success the act of earning an ample income. I beg to differ. I consider success as simply the act of utilizing your best talents to do what you love, and succeeding at it. I’m going to go over some reasons why it matters so much, reasons that people rarely discuss, which I’ve had to learn the hard way.

It’s true you won’t be genuinely happy, until you start doing what you really want to do with your life. So obviously, this would be the first and foremost reason to pursue your dreams and aim for success.But have you ever seriously considered the consequences of both “not” succeeding at what you love and/or “succeeding” at what you love?
Let’s first go over what tends to happen when you don’t pursue your dreams and choose the passive act of just being a leaf on the stream of life.

Your relationships suffer.

And when I say “relationships,” I mean ALL relationships.

Your relationship with yourself suffers first. Since you’re not doing what you know you’re supposed to be doing you’re in a perpetual state of mental, emotional and spiritual unrest. You’re basically creating an inner war inside of yourself which only grows with time. It’s like a cancer that you can’t see. But it’s there. It’s always there, growing into an all pervasive black mass that will explode when you least expect it. Don’t do this to yourself. Life is too short.

One of my favorite quotes of all time is, “When the pain of the change becomes less than the pain of remaining the same, you will change.” My prayer for you is that you never get to this point and that you fine tune your focus onto your dreams before they eat you alive.

If your relationship with yourself is out of balance, everything else in your life will follow suit. You will begin to fall into the trap of self loathing, which will then create a lack of self esteem, which will then evolve into an all pervasive fear of the unknown and a general lack of faith in anything whatsoever. This spells out the antithesis of the frame of mind necessary for success. Learn to cultivate faith in yourself. You simply must if you want to succeed.

Secondly, your relationships with your friends, acquaintances and employers are negatively affected. Everyone can sense it when you’re living some form of a lie.

Basically, what happened to me was I developed a slight reputation as being selfish and self-centered. Sure, I’m a bit of a diva anyway(I’m an effin’ singer for crying out loud) but I’m a very generous and compassionate person by default. It’s my true nature. I’m probably too nice and too compassionate, actually.

However, due to years of not putting myself and my career first, and being lost in the slavery of full-time jobs, and romantic relationships etc( this is after I moved to NYC, prior to that I was touring as a DJ, but that’s another story... lol), I became pretty sad and unfulfilled deep inside of myself. And people could sense it. I also never had any money at all, because I wasn’t earnestly working towards any type of genuine financial freedom. I was stuck earning just the minimum to get by(most the time). I was always in a state of “lack” as I fondly refer to it. I eventually started to resent anyone who expected me to “give” them anything. What did I have to give anyway?
I had nothing.. I was starving myself of my own life’s purpose.

Use your imagination and think about how this state of being can manifest further and show its ugliness in all aspects of your life. It’s not a pretty thing to look at. One of the keys to life is cultivating abundance, NOT deprivation. I didn’t even trust myself enough to make the changes necessary to start earning money at what I actually love, and what I do best. I knew what I was “supposed” to be doing(so did my coworkers and close friends) I knew what I was “put” on earth to do. But I was too fearful, broke, and lazy to do it. This morbid despair continually grew inside me, unbeknownst to me. By that time I’d shoved it so deep I’d forgotten it was even there.

The more you resist something, the more it persists.....

People will begin to develop a warped view of who you truly are if you don’t honor your highest self and focus on your calling in life. This will also perpetuate the warped view you have of yourself. The riff that develops between your true self, and the false self you’ve built in order to ignore your calling will start causing strange problems in your life. Your employers will notice it, your friends and acquaintances will notice it, and your romantic partners will notice it.

Your relationship with your romantic partners will suffer because you’re constantly feeling like you should be doing something else other than what you’re doing with them. Perhaps you’re not present because you’re always busy thinking about how you should be in the studio making music instead of sitting in front of the T.V eating junk food. Or, perhaps you’re so disgruntled about where you are in life, that this low level agitation constantly creeps out of you in all situations causing a strange riff between you and your partner. Honestly, I could write a damn book on this particular point, but I’m just gonna leave it at this.

Do what you love, succeed at it, THEN worry about being in a relationship. Or, you could try doing it the other way around and see what happens. Here’s a hint, it “usually” doesn’t work. Eventually you’ll explode, and yes I did explode, on various occasions. I refer to these explosions as my beloved “trips to rock bottom.” Lol.

Eventually, I grew tired of hitting rock bottom. I decided I would just fucking be the star that I am once and for all. I can’t help it that I was born this way. I can’t help it that virtually all my talent lies in music and performing. I can’t help it that I have all these songs, messages, and visions to relay to the world. It’s just who I am. And honestly, I didn’t ASK to be this. It’s simply WHO and WHAT I AM.

Maybe you just need to look at yourself in the mirror one day, and ask, "Who am I? Am I being the person I’m supposed to be in this life? Or am I just doing what my parents want me to do...?" (“building” your resume etc....) Fuck that. Go for the gold.
Relinquish the fear. It’ll catch up to you one day if you don’t. Believe you me.

Ok, so now that we’ve gotten through the uncomfortable part, let’s go over the consequences of doing what you love and succeeding at it!!

Number one, your energy changes.

You break free from the bullshit of life. Your relationship with yourself changes because, well, you no longer hate yourself. You still have to work hard, and in most cases, even harder than you did before. But at least, you enjoy what you’re doing and you’re not living in a sickened state of disgruntled unrest.

You know you’re heading in the right direction and somehow manage to find others who’re doing the same. There’s a noticeable momentum and ripple effect that begins to take hold as things continue to move in the “right” direction.

Suddenly, being single(or attached to the right partner - if you’ve already successfully found your teammate) becomes a blessing rather than a detriment. You start understanding the value of pursuing what you love and how it changes your being. You begin to realize that this change affects virtually EVERYTHING and EVERYONE in your life.

Since you respect yourself now, others begin to respect you more as well. People begin to take your dreams and talents seriously, because YOU take them seriously.

Number two, you begin to advance in your craft. You couldn’t advance before because you never gave yourself the genuine time or freedom to work on it. You never had the faith to do it and you were always caught up with something. Now, you’re getting even better at what you do, in fact, you’re perfecting it.

Last but not least, you’re raising the effin’ vibration of the entire planet. Why?
Because when you do what you love, and succeed at it, you subsequently become a more happy and fulfilled person.

When you’re a happy and fulfilled person, you naturally exhibit less of the “low level” human emotions; greed, envy, jealousy, etc. Before you made the change in yourself, these emotions were subconsciously seeping out of you like black syrup onto everyone and everything around you.

And guess what, this currently defines the state of most people in our society, including some of my friends, unfortunately. Tragically, most people walk around in a perpetual state of unfulfillment. They harbor envy, jealousy, resentment and all sorts of emotional sickness. Don’t be this person. We have enough of them already.
I used to be one too...

Just imagine what it would be like if everyone chose the high road. Imagine if everyone chose to be happy and fulfilled in life by working towards their dreams, and attaining them. I think this shift could possibly start changing the world and the way we interact with one another.

How can you be happy with anyone, or anything... if you’re not even happy with yourself?

Think about it. I did.
And now my voice is being heard by the world.