What Do You Love?

I have found that I LOVE making jewelry, but it took a while!

Do what you love!  Have an amazing life!  What happens if you don't even know what you like, never mind what you love?

You only know that you don't particularly care for what you're doing right now and you're feeling restless.  A part of you that believes you have the potential to do much bigger things.

You were born to share your gifts, if only you could put your finger on exactly what those are...

How do you find your strengths?  How do you figure out what your dreams are?

Here is how I began to get clear on what I really want to have in my life.

I started by really paying attention to what I was doing and breaking it down.  I started noticing when something pulled me in.  What exactly I was doing when time passed quickly and when it dragged.

If I found something online that made me want to know more I paid attention to what is was exactly that intrigued me and I wrote it down in my journal (this is how I found art journaling!)

I started noticing what sections of the bookstore I gravitated to.  What was I always looking at? (Business, Creative Stuff, Interior Design.)

I started examining what the favorite parts of my job were (understanding what motivates people and future planning) and what really made my eye start to twitch (I will hold my tongue because my grandmother taught me to.)

I made cards about the people I most admire and the qualities they had, things like "positive energy", "generous", "they talk about things I find interesting" and "kind." This helped me to know what kind of people I want to surround myself with. The type of people I wanted to draw into my life.

I began trying things that interested me even if I thought I wasn't good at them.  Like painting and making jewelry.  Like teaching kids.  Like designing a web page.  If it sparked an interest for me, I tried it and gave myself permission to do it wrong or badly, which really took the pressure off.

I also started making a list of things that I no longer wanted to have in my life.  Things I was ready to release and be done with.  The challenging part here was that many of the things I wanted to let go of, were intricately tangled around me in ways that made them difficult to release.

It has become a process of loosening the threads, one by one, like cutting gum out of a little gir'ls hair.  You want to chop out the wad all at once, but it's better in the long run if you go slowly and try to preserve the good things, while getting rid of the sticky-icky mess.

I encourage you to start paying attention and noticing what pulls you in.  Right now, in the next hour, throughout your day.  You will start to see where you most like to explore and where time disappears. 

Following this path will lead you back to what you truly want.  What is it you love?