Follow the Glow: How to Discover Your Passion in Life

My post Follow the Glow originally appeared on the previous website of bestselling author Rick Smith. Rick is a seasoned entrepreneur who wrote The Leap: How 3 Simple Changes Can Propel Your Career from Good to Great. Rick has made great leaps himself, including founding World 50, one of the world’s most influential senior executive networking companies that include members and contributors such as Bono, Francis Ford Coppola, and Jon Stewart. What I found fascinating during my read of The Leap was Rick's honesty and accessibility as an author. Given Rick's credentials, he could have touted genius as the foundation for his success. Instead, Rick describes how many people who have accomplished great things, including himself, were not much different from the rest of us. They simply made small changes that made big differences. One of those small changes is simply finding work that fits who you are as a person. Always great advice, but sometimes hard to know how to execute. Rick's book The Leap can show you how.

So check out Rick's book The Leap after Follow the Glow.

I have a question for you. In life, are you thriving or merely surviving? If you listen closely to your inner voice, perhaps during the precious few moments you get alone on a Sunday evening when the light fades outside and another workweek looms, which one is it? Thriving or surviving?

The answer is not always apparent. Conventional wisdom lulls many to believe we thrive when we don’t. We may find ourselves the owner of a successful career—by conventional wisdom’s standards—or owner of a successful business, but are we the owner of a successful life? Does the future energize you or do you wither in a job your mind quit long ago but your body still shows up every week to claim a paycheck?

It’s okay to be honest. You’re not the only one. Ten years ago, I was an executive vice president and partner in a software consulting firm. We grew from a handful of people to 75 employees in three years. People patted us on the back for our accomplishment, yet a gnawing voice nipped at me from within. Something wasn’t right. Yet I had no idea what to do about it.

Early in 2001, I volunteered as a school lunch buddy to a 10-year-old boy from an underprivileged family. Every Wednesday we’d slip from the cafeteria and amble out to sun-drenched picnic tables below spring skies where he and I discussed whether football or baseball was the better sport and why kids sat in classrooms all day when the vast and wonderful world they studied, beckoned from the outside. We never came up with good answers to either question.

At the end of the school year, we gathered in the library for a recognition luncheon. I watched as a man received the Volunteer of the Year Award. After thanking the presenter, the man grew quiet for a moment while he studied the trophy in his hand. He started to speak in a soft voice:

“Several months ago a transfer truck doing seventy totaled my Mercedes with me in it. I was bruised and sore and shaken up, but I walked away.”

He paused and looked over our small group.

“For two weeks afterward, I could see a glow around everything important in my life: my family, my church, the field where my kids played ball… and this school,” he said, motioning to the book-lined walls.

I was mesmerized. And blown away. I recognized I’d heard something profound, but I didn’t know what to do with the knowledge. So I did what lots of us do when something moves us… I let the next day’s tornado of responsibilities sideswipe it from my mind. In other words… I forgot.

Five months later, as I watched a jet pierce the World Trade Center, his words about the glow came back to me. For days and weeks afterward, I couldn’t help but think of the individuals who had wobbled out of bed the morning of 9/11 and not known it was the last time they’d do it. I thought of all the people who showered, skipped breakfast, rushed goodbye kisses, unaware they’d never do those things again. All those hopes and dreams and anticipation of future events that would never arrive, a whole bundle of deferred living. Had these people found what glowed for them? If they hadn’t, had any been seeking it out? It was another two questions I didn’t have good answers to. The only thing I knew for sure was this… when it came to my life’s work, I hadn’t found what glowed for me. The time had come to start looking.

But where to start? How does a person find what glows? Through trial and error, starts and stops, here’s what I’ve learned so far.

Begin by looking around you. What energizes you? What feels right? What makes you feel alive? Those items and activities glow for you. Your past holds clues too. What were things or activities you once loved but fell to the wayside as you grew older and practical, as you became a responsible adult? Reexamine them.  Hold them up to the light and find their magic once more. Combine them. When we combine passions, innovation emerges. For me, I discovered the old dreams I’d suppressed were as radiant as ever once I dusted them off. Their luster had never faded but only been dimmed by distractions.

I’d always dreamt of flying. So I finally made the decision to learn. No more deferred living for me. I’d also enjoyed writing when younger. I reclaimed those skills and begin to improve them. Merging those passions led me to write and place my first magazine article, a piece where I chronicled learning to fly for an aviation magazine. Now, years later, I’m working full-time on my first novel about a man who discovers his glow while learning to fly.

So what glows for you? Finding that glow is the easy part. Having faith the glow will lead you to the person you want to be is what’s difficult sometimes. You must have faith. You must trust the process. There is no other way. Ask yourself constantly when making decisions—large and small—does this energize me? Does it feel right? Does it make me feel alive?

Does it glow?

Move toward what glows. Steer clear of whatever doesn’t. If you feel locked into a career or job that drains you, summon that glow into your personal life with full force. Embracing what glows in your off time will expose escape routes. Passions drawn into personal lives become platforms from which we can leap into new, fulfilling careers. It happens all the time. It may take a while, but know that period of time will pass no matter what you do. When it comes to a career, I can’t imagine anything scarier than waking up ten years from now to find yourself in the exact same spot you never wanted to be in the first place.

Following what glows takes courage. It’s not a popular choice with some. People may discourage you. Ignore them. Think for yourself. Let them follow their own advice while you follow the glow. The world needs you to do what you are meant to do. When we follow the glow, we are happier, more productive. We radiate a peace that places others at ease. When we follow the glow, we inspire. We motivate. Following our glow encourages sideline observers to seek their own glow, to discover a personal elixir similar to what we’ve unearthed. Following the glow spurs positive change in others and the world. I’ve witnessed it first hand. We need a world where eyes sparkle with the reflection of the light we all pursue.

I received a tremendous gift that day in the small school library. Now, on every step of my journey through life, as I encounter forks in my path, as conventional wisdom whispers in my ear that it knows what’s best for me, I ask myself only one question:

Does it glow?

I can’t afford to spend time on anything that isn’t glowing in my life. The remaining question is, can you?