Follow Your Bliss: The Art of Doing What You Love

An important ingredient to being happy is doing work that you find meaningful and is an expression of who you are.

This is called Doing What You Love. It is also the ability to, as Joseph Campbell put it, “Follow Your Bliss.”

Campbell was an American mythologist, writer and lecturer, best known for his work in comparative mythology and comparative religion. His work is vast, covering many aspects of the human experience. His philosophy is often summarized by his phrase: “Follow your bliss.”

This is what Joseph Campbell had to say:

“What is it that makes you happy? 
Stay with it, no matter what people tell you.

This is what I call, ‘Following Your Bliss.’

If you do follow your bliss, you put yourself on a kind of track that has been there all the while, waiting for you. 
And the life that 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 lives within you, all the time.

When you can see that, you begin to meet people who are in the field of your bliss, and they open doors for you. 
I say, follow your bliss and don’t be afraid, and doors will open 
where you didn’t know they were going to be.”

And so the question to you is: Are you following your bliss? Are you doing what you love?

And if not, what is holding you back?

The truth be told, it is fear that holds us back from doing what we love.

But it can be overcome. The first step is to ask yourself: if I could do anything, what would that be?

You may not have an answer right away, and that’s alright, because we are not programmed to think that way.

We are programmed to think that we need to make a living, and that we should make the most pragmatic choice in that regard.

But instead, what if we follow our bliss? As Joseph Campbell says, doors will open for you where you didn’t know they would be.

Which is a tremendous thing, because when you do what you love and follow your bliss, you will be happier, healthier, and more fulfilled.

And there is nothing more important in life than to live in a happier, healthier and more fulfilled way.