Greg Faxon argues you already know what excites you, you've just learned to ignore it. Stop asking others for direction, pay attention to what feels light or heavy in your body, and rebuild trust by following through on small commitments to yourself.
Stop telling me that you don't know what you're passionate about. That's bullshit. Of course you know what you're passionate about. You telling me that when you feel excited, you can't recognize that excitement. And when you feel miserable, you can't tell that you're miserable. We've been trained since we were young to look to everybody else to tell us what we should do with our lives. And the reality is we know, but we're too scared to see it. We're too scared to admit it. Because if we actually did the thing that we wanted to do, if we actually chose the business model we wanted to choose, if we chose the niche we wanted to choose, if we started making the art we wanted to do, then we would feel stupid if we messed it up. We grow up and we go to school and we get these jobs, and all of our society is grounded in the belief that you don't know what's best for you. When we're kids, we're not questioning, should I go on the slide now or should I go on the monkey bars? We just do the thing that we want to do. It's not that hard. And then as we grow up, we're like, should I go on the swing? Should I go on the monkey bars? Is that wrong to do that? Just fucking go on the swing. Just go on the swing. Have a good time. The muscle of doing what you want, of following what's true to you, has atrophied because you haven't used it. So I'm going to give you three steps. How to get back that strength, and how to actually go do the fucking thing that you want to do. So the first step is actually stop asking people. I get so many emails that are like, hey, Greg, I just need to figure out what I want to do with my life. Once I know what I'm going to do with my life, what I'm passionate about, then I can actually go and act. Well, the thing is, it's the opposite of that. You don't need to wait for clarity in order to be courageous. You need to be courageous. The whole point of the courage is that you don't know if it's going to work yet. That's the only way to get clarity, is to actually go do the thing. You'll find out really quickly if it's for you. Okay? So I don't know what you should do with your life. I'm not you. And if you listen to what other people are telling you to do, well, they're not the ones who have to live with it. You are, you know what you need to do. And once you just do the thing, even if it wasn't the optimal strategy, you'll do it better because it's actually true to you. It's actually something you're excited about and that's when your creativity comes out. And so the first thing is to stop looking for all these external inputs to take action on things. The second piece, actually listen to yourself. We've gotten so bad at listening to ourselves and what we actually want that we've just tuned it out. You know, we ignored that voice for so long. The voice is like, alright, I guess I'll just shut up now. Okay, so what do I mean by listen to yourself? Well, if you're thinking about doing something new or starting a business or should I stay in a job or leaving a job, literally, just listen. Listen to your body. Does it make you feel heavy? Does it make you feel light? Does it make you feel excited? Does it feel like a drag? And don't fight whatever comes up. If it comes up and says this is totally the wrong thing, listen to that, okay? You have more wisdom than you think you do. The third step is go and follow through. Keep your promises, okay? One of the reasons why our fear overshadows our real passions is because we don't trust ourselves. We have a track record of not following through with the things that we wanted to do. So we got all passionate about something, we wanted to do it, but we weren't consistent with it. And when the passion died out, we didn't keep doing it. So you don't trust yourself anymore. You think it's going to be the wrong decision. You think you're going to fail at it. So when you identify those things that you want to do, go all in, go for it. Because if you don't keep promises to yourself consistently, you're not going to be confident, right? You're not going to trust that you're going to do it in the future. So those are the three steps to building back. Kind of that muscle that tells you what's true for you and what you want to do. First, stop taking in all the external inputs. Stop looking for other people to tell you what you need, what your passion is, what your purpose is, all that bs. The second one is start listening to yourself, okay? And the third is follow through. When you look around, I'm looking, you know, in front, I'm in West Virginia and there's trees growing out of the ground, you know, and some of them are walnut trees. Some of them are maple trees. When they grow, they're not, like, trying to adjust, being like, should I be. Should I do maple? Should I be doing walnuts? They're just. They're a walnut tree. They're meant to do walnuts. They're not looking around and trying to please me as they grow. They're meant to be a walnut tree, and that's what they're doing. And so it's ridiculous when you think about that in terms of a tree trying to adjust to what we want, it's just going to continue to grow the same way. Yet we do it in our business. Okay. Your only goal is to stay in the flow of the things that you're meant to do by listening to what feels exciting to you, by listening to what you're good at and following that. When you try to pivot to please everyone or figure out what you should do or what's the most advantageous thing to do, it just slows you down. It's just messes you up. That's all I have for today. Thank you for listening. I love you all.
