How to follow your passion and succeed

In this post I will share how to make money from your passion. So, let’s get started.

You can make money doing almost anything

The main problem when it comes to following your passion is money. I get it. Us humans are obsessed with earning a living. And it’s not for nothing. Money determines the quality of life we will get to live. In some societies, money determines status.

But the real problem is not money. It’s herd mentality. It’s FOMO, the fear of missing out. We don’t want to be left behind while our peers are getting promoted in their job. We don’t want to look back at our life and regret. We don’t want to waste our youth. And again, there’s nothing wrong with that either.

I don’t want to bullshit with you. Let’s be honest, the proper way to pursue your passion is to do it from your childhood. No one becomes a football star by starting to play at their 16^th birthday. Most of them get professional coaching since their childhood. Same goes to musicians and filmmakers. Even popular programmers like Bill Gates or Elon Musk had an early start.

That’s because a craft takes time before you master it. So, if you want to be a professional, this post isn’t for you.

Then again there are people who would leave everything they have to pursue their passion in their 20’s and find success in their 40s (or later). Stephen Pressfield have done it, Harland Sanders did it. But this post is not for them either.

I am talking about the amateur artist. The service holder with a soft spot for a certain sport. The programmer who just started with the basics at his 20s.

People who have a full-time job already, or students who don’t have much time to practice anything- you can still build a career in the field of your passion.

And this is all possible because of how the economy have shifted after the rise of social media. Attention is the new currency. If you can serve an audience, you can build a career.

The only questions that need answering then are these- how do I build an audience and how do I monetize my audience?

Well, building an audience is hard. But it’s possible if you are willing to put at least 10 hours every week behind that. If you can do that, then read this post to know about people who make a living doing things they love.

The monetization part is easier. There’s no shortage of ways in which you can monetize an audience. There’s Ad revenue, Affiliate marketing, donations, merch sales, selling courses, selling 1 to 1 coaching, building email lists and many other ways depending on the industry that you serve.

The bottom line is, if you are a writer/musician/teacher (etc.) at heart, you don’t have to keep doing office work till your 60s. You can retire early if you play your cards right. Use your time and resources wisely and be willing to work for 5-10 years silently. That’s how you will get out of the rat race and fulfill your potential.

How I remain present all day

 

Be aware of your breathing as often as you are able, whenever you remember. Do that for one year, and it will be powerfully transformative. And it’s free. ~Eckhart Tolle

Well there’s a simple way to be present all day. But it’s not easy at all.

Presence come to different people through different mediums. Some like to incorporate the duality of sound and silence, where as some are more affected by body awareness. Others may find frequent meditations helpful. Some say what helped them best was to monitor their thoughts and feelings.

I am very sensitive to sound and have always had sensitive auditory senses.

Yet, body awareness seems to work for me the best. Even the darkest night of my soul gets a little ray of light if I try to focus on the energy field in my hand.

So here’s what I do to stay grounded in presence all day:

I incorporate all the helpful pointers of presence throughout my daily life. It goes like this-

I start the day with a 10-minute meditation.

As I go through my day, I simply keep noticing my breath. All the time. Whenever I find myself forgetful of this, I simply start again. I don’t worry about the past one hour when I forgot to notice my breathing. I don’t worry myself about how I am going to prevent this in the future. I simply notice my breath now. At this moment and don’t put much energy into thinking about it.

When I am in my bed for sleep, I practice a whole-body awareness scan as Eckhart showed in ‘The Power of Now’.

This seems to calm me down and put me in an aware, alert and happy mode.

Some days I feel euphoric and so incredibly present that I can’t help but be grateful for my existence. This kind of experience has been very rare in my life so far.

That is not to say I can consistently be intensely present. Most of the days I feel normal. I feel at ease. But not euphoric.