Kevin Hall, the author of "Aspire, Discovering Your Purpose Through the Power of Words" introduced me to a quote by Joseph Campbell, a quote that became a major part of my life in the last year: “When you follow your bliss, you put yourself on the track that has been there all the while… you begin to meet people who are in the field of your bliss, and they open doors to you.”
Kevin's book opened up a whole new way of journeying through life with a different perspective. I took up barefoot water skiing again last year, twenty five years after a hard fall wiped out a lot of my hearing– causing me to go from hard of hearing to deaf. As you can imagine, barefoot water skiing isn't a cheap sport. I wasn't even sure how I was going to afford it, but more than anything, I wanted to barefoot water ski and I decided to follow my bliss.
Making that simple decision and setting my intention put everything in motion. Sure enough, just as Kevin wrote in an email to me, his words began to come true: "Dive in with all your heart, follow your bliss, and people will appear to help you with what you want most." The results were nothing short of remarkable. Opportunities to barefoot water ski began popping up here and there. I was able to ski at the World Barefoot Center, with the World Champions, Keith St. Onge and David Small instructing me. I spent a week barefooting with women barefooters from all over. Other barefooters reached out on Facebook and invited me to ski with them on their lakes. At first, my husband was a little worried about me taking off and getting into a boat with strangers that I barely knew. "What if they're axe murderers?" he fretted. But I trusted the referrals of others before taking off to barefoot with someone new– and as a result, I now have new friends from several states.
Most of us hold back from following our bliss because we let the details of "how" get in the way of "what" we want to do. Once I made the decision to compete this summer, I didn't analyze the "how." I just made the decision to go for it– and that I would find sponsors. This was something I learned from another book, "The Passion Test" by Janet and Chris Attwood. Sure enough, along the way, sponsors began to appear here and there. General Motors/Chevrolet, Phonak Hearing Aids, World Barefoot Center, Oak Cove Resort, ZVRS, Bikram Yoga Naperville, and even Roger Claar, the mayor of Bolingbrook– all of the sponsors stood behind me to make it happen. I'm confident even more will appear along the journey.
I often ask people, "Where do you want to be five years from now–what do you want to accomplish, see or do?" I enjoy hearing how others are following their bliss and taking joy in each day by doing something they truly love to do. Nothing saddens me more to come across someone who has given up their hopes and dreams because they get caught up in the "how" instead of the "what." My friends now roll their eyes when they hear me ask that question to someone new, because they've heard me ask it over and over. But here's the deal– five years from now, you're going to have five years of life behind you. Wouldn't you rather have five blissful years than to face me again saying, "I wish I …"
