Are you following your bliss? How to follow my bliss, wasn’t on my radar. The word bliss came up from a conversation that I had with my son Steve. It was during his last year of college. He was discovering what he wanted to be at the age of 22 and his mother was still discovering what she wanted to be when she grew up. Can you relate?

Anyway, I asked Steve if he would consider me to be a happy person…. a pretty loaded question, but I was prepared for a number of answers. The reason I asked is that the prior eleven years had been pretty rough.

Before there Was Ever Bliss

I asked for a divorce from Steve’s father that was final in 2003. I’d quit my steady job as a successful sales manager in the radio industry in 2001, but found my dream job in 2003. The company folded in early 2005. It was a pretty major blow. I started to pursue my writing career but wimped out when Clear Channel offered me a position that seemed perfect.

The Road to Bliss

On a more blissful note, I remarried in 2004. My husband Robert and Steve have a great relationship, so that’s a blessing. After a great first year at Clear Channel, the micro managing became extremely intense and I left the radio business to become a consultant to have more freedom. That didn’t work so well either.

I quit that line of work to write in 2008. While I knew a lot about marketing, I didn’t know a lot about the publishing business or the Internet, so from 2008 to 2009 I stumbled and learned a lot. All of this time, my wonderful husband was gainfully employed and supporting my dream. That’s until the end of 2009 when he lost his job.

I put my Internet and marketing skills to work and became a consultant again. This time it was through my own business. It paid the bills, but it didn’t make my heart sing.

When you work for an employer you take for granted that you have a building to go to, the lights will be on, and that you can make all of the copies you need and hold them together with a paper clip.

Owning your own business, you are paying for the building, lights, copier, paper, and the paper clips. Dates like the first and the fifteenth roll around, sometimes without a paycheck. Pretty soon the calendar becomes meaningless. It’s rather humbling and stressful.

With Steve going away to school, I saw him mostly on weekends. The few times when he had a break from school, I was usually glued to my chair in my office working on my computer and putting out some fire with websites or technology or servers not working, etc. We used to go to lunch together or see a movie. But the first few years were so intense, I had to watch every penny. We still had dinners together, but I hadn’t felt like we’d done many fun activities.

That’s why I decided to ask Steve the question if I was a happy person. We were in the car, returning home from running an errand together. There was a big pause when he said, “Happy?” Oh boy, I thought, here it comes. Be careful what you ask.

He replied, “I wouldn’t say happy. I would say blissful.”

Wow! I truly wasn’t expecting that.

What Does Bliss Mean Anyway?

Before writing this post, I decided to look up the meaning of bliss. It means: 1. Supreme happiness and 2. The joy of heaven.

I made the decision, again (but for good this time) to follow my bliss. That means writing books and creating in various ways with the end result to inspire, encourage, entertain, and help others grow through group and one-on-one coaching.

My writing dream came through this time through God Notes – Daily Doses of Divine Encouragement, published by DreamSculpt, an imprint of Waterside Productions along with my second book: The Freedom to Eat – 10 Secrets for Lasting Weight Loss and Inner Peace.

I loved reading this definition of bliss, because when I am writing and creating, I experience supreme happiness. I also experience the joy of heaven, because I believe that heaven is not just out there or up there somewhere. Heaven is right here and right now when we are in alignment with our Creator.

There is no greater feeling than being in a blissful flow of creativity or helping other grow spiritually. Through this tumultuous eleven year period from corporate employee to entrepreneur,  I’ve learned the importance of listening to the still, small voice that is within us. It’s our built in GPS system that nudges us and tells us what we need to do. It’s so easy to drown out the voice because of busyness, or being practical, or just plain being afraid of failing or even succeeding.

How Do You Follow Your Bliss? – 5 Tips

So, how do you follow your bliss? Here are 5 tips to help you:

  1. You need to pay attention – Are there yearnings that you have?
  2. Learn to be still – We live in a culture that is wired through 24 hour information. Our minds are cluttered with information overload, marketers and social media are all vying for our attention. Learn to quiet your mind. Meditation is a great way to do that. If you need help, like I did in this area, I’ve created a simple, guided meditation CD that helps clear the mind clutter.
  3. Keep a journal and write down the yearnings or thoughts you have.
  4. Take action of some sort on the yearnings you wrote about – Sign up for an art class, take salsa lessons, learn a new skill.
    1. If you don’t even know where to start, investigating your strengths can help a lot. It certainly did for me. Here is a great free resource: Keirsey Personality Sorter   I also love StrenghtFinder2.0 book. It has a quiz to find out your top five strengths. Please note: YOU MUST PURCHASE A NEW COPY FOR THE ASSESSMENT.
  5. We live in an amazing time when information and help abounds through the Internet for almost any skill or vocation that you want to learn. It’s also a great way to market products and services if that is how you follow your bliss.

I’m extremely grateful for my wonderful son and for his honest answer that day. All I was thinking about was happiness and he trumped that definition with bliss.

So, are you following your bliss? I hope this post helped you discover how to follow your bliss and would love for you to share or comment.

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