Recognition as the Key to Finding Your Best Path Forward
The most common hesitation that I hear from people who want to leave the 9–5 life and explore another path is:
“But I don’t know what I’d do otherwise.”
Most people either don’t know what they enjoy doing or (like myself) want to do everything and have a hard time committing to just one.
We’re generally not taught to follow our hearts, and we can even look at people who are passionate about something as being “lucky” that they found their thing. I believe that we all have our own unique passions that might just be buried deep underneath, but have huge potential to be our biggest form of self-expression in the world.
My Simple Recognition Signal
My recognition signal is the simple feeling of curiosity, followed by asking myself if it aligns with my values.
Here is a personal example:
I learned to tattoo a few years ago in Thailand.
A couple of friends had invited me to their villa — I was curious, so I said yes.
I saw a cool tattoo shop nearby — I was curious, so I went inside.
Talking to the tattoo artist made me wanna learn — I was curious, so I asked him to teach me.
I found out later that it’s not the best fit for me, as I discovered that precision is not one of my core values, and the art of tattooing didn’t allow me to be as messy as I wanted to be.
My current project has nothing to do with tattooing, but tattooing was a huge and necessary step to bring me here today.
I follow anything and everything that sparks my curiosity — whether through research, figuring out ways that I can actually pursue it, etc… And that has led me on the greatest adventures of my life all around the world.
Reflection:
What sparks your curiosity? How often do you follow your curiosities vs suppress them?
It can be the smallest, most random things that don’t seem to hold any real importance — curiosity about a movie outside of your usual genre, curiosity about what a certain word sounds like in Arabic, curiosity about learning how to freestyle rap, etc.
Treat your curiosities like they are precious signals from your gut to your brain. Through this process, you figure out your deepest values and what activities align with them or not.
And before you know it, you’re building a life for yourself that feels free and authentic.