There will be people that will tell you, maybe somebody has already told you, that doing what you love is selfish and irresponsible. This just isn’t true.

Let’s say you listen to this advice. Perhaps this advice was given to you by a guidance counselor, a friend, or a family member. Maybe they were even well-meaning. Whoever told you, and for whatever reason, you’ve chosen to believe that doing what you love is irresponsible and selfish. You decide that the right thing to do is follow convention and be responsible. You take a job that you don’t like. You put aside your passion. You go to this job and focus on responsibility. You’re never really happy now. You’re being responsible, but not following your soul’s calling.

There’s a constant low-lying sense of discontent and discomfort. You’re never really happy. Sure, there’s moments of happiness, but it never really lasts because you’re just not happy. The discontent, boredom, and malaise that comes from spending your time doing things you don’t particularly care about start to settle in. You’re never really satisfied now.

You’re not really that great at your job, or maybe your job doesn’t require greatness of you. There’s a feeling of discontent. You start looking for distractions, and well-designed distractions become addictions. You’re still unhappy, but now you’re also addicted. Maybe it’s media, video games, alcohol, drugs, food – whatever it is, it doesn’t matter. It doesn’t help. Now you’re working hard at a job that doesn’t have any real intrinsic value to support your new-found addictions.

You never really feel well, and all this tension begins to manifest as physical and mental health problems. To account for this, you start taking medication. Maybe it’s for high blood pressure, maybe anxiety – it doesn’t matter. Now you’re working at a job you don’t care about (or even dislike or hate), unhappy, distracted, addicted, and medicated.

Does this sound familiar?

All you want is security and comfort (both of which are illusions) and wellness. All of this is sold to you now. You’re the product and the target market. You buy bigger houses, new vehicles, new gaming systems, new phones, but none of it, none if it helps. It never will.

You’re now a product of what somebody else told you to do to be responsible and reasonable. You’re also a prime targeting market – discontent, looking to spend money to make yourself feel better. Meanwhile, your talents, your soul’s calling, that inner fire, your creativity have gone untended to. The constant tension you feel is the result of not finding a way to tend to that inner fire, your soul’s calling, your creativity.

Now let’s back all the way up. Yes – we need to be responsible. We need and want to be good citizens, spouses, partners, mothers, fathers, friends, all of it. But, we cannot ignnore what we’re called to do. To pursue your passions, to do what you love is not selfish. It is not irresponsible. Your talents and responsibility belong to you. There are things, INCREDIBLE things that only you can do. Not just because of your skill (because skill is what gets you through the door, you need that), but because of who you are.

Who you are is eternally and immesurably more important than what you do.

You’re meant to do great things. The thing is that nobody is going to give you a map and say, “here’s how you get there.” You don’t even know where “there” is. But you know the direction. So you start by doing something, you figure it out. You head in the right direction by working on it every day. You commit to that life. The great thing is that once you make that commitment, you find that you’re happier. You’ve never been busier, and you’ve never been happier. You make mistakes, you learn, and you keep going. You find a way to do what you love.

Admittedly, you may need to supplement your income with other work. That’s fine. If you keep pursuing it, at some point, you’ll find that your work gets in the way of your passion, and you’ll know when it’s time to make the jump. Or maybe you won’t, but you’ll be happy pursuing it separate from your job. It makes no difference. You’re committed to your goals and more importantly the lifestyle that’s required to achieve those goals.

You’re happier, you’re not looking for distraction, because they just get in the way. You’re a better citizen, spouse, partner, father, mother, friend, all of it. You’re healthier. You’re now the result of your own efforts rather than the product of somebody else’s fears, insecurities, and priorities. You’re not following a map. If there was one, you probably wouldn’t want it anyways because you’d just be following someone else’s priorities and understanding. You’re finding your own way now.

You’re better at what you do. It’s a net positive for everybody! It’s not just for you, but for everybody else too, even that person that told you that you should concentrate on responsibility and convention in the first place. Finding a way to do what you love that can help other people, and doing it well results in a net positive for everybody, including you. It’s not a selfish act.

You don’t have to be the first person to cure cancer or to fly to Mars, but who’s do say you won’t be? There are a million ways to make a positive impact and make a good living doing what you love. Your efforts to hear and act on your soul’s calling are what will lead humanity closer to what you believe in. You just have to do the work and commit to the lifestyle. Be willing to be uncomfortable for what you believe in.

You don’t get photos like the one above by being responsible. You have to choose passion over responsibility in that moment to decide to chase a storm for hundreds of miles into a sunset in order to get a photo like this. It doesn’t mean that I don’t have to find a way to buy gas, have a vehicle, have insurance, and all that responsible stuff. But, you do have to place that responsibility aside and chase what you love, and even get a chance to make a living at it.

Don’t seek comfort and distraction. Don’t follow convention just because somebody told you that you needed to. Find a way to do what you love. We need you.

The MAKE ROOM Planner and Journal is a way to organize your life in a way that lets you live in alignment with your goals and priorities. If you don’t MAKE ROOM for them, life around you will fill that space with it’s own priorities. MAKE ROOM for what’s important to you.