How to make money off of your passion (I finally understand!)

Last week, I posted this to an online, spiritual forum:

Just had a major epiphany this morning about ENERGY. All year, I’ve had consistent/rising income from my astrology readings. While I still have established clients, new clients dropped off in August and September. I was trying to figure out if this was part of a larger trend, or something I was doing. What hit me this morning is that around the time I started getting less demand for readings, was the time that I turned my passion towards the suffrage research, which must be sending some kind of message to the Universe. And, I saw a pattern in my life, that when I’m passionate about something, I jump in with ALL I HAVE. But, I’m rarely able to sustain passion about more than one thing at a time (and when I try, I usually end up sick/depressed!). Now, the question to meditate on…do I embrace that I do this, or do I find a more balanced approach…

A very wise woman replied, “WHAT IF embracing that you do this will naturally, organically lead to a more balanced approach. It is ALREADY so!”

So, I turned up the flame under the astrology pot again. There was a submerged part of me that had assumed I could only have one passion at a time. I realized I could be MULTI-passionate. And, within just a few days, I started seeing rapid movement on the astrology front again!

This was a very tangible demonstration of a saying that I quote often, “Follow your bliss and the money will follow.” Before, I didn’t actually believe it, not deep down. In fact, I think I quoted it so often because I wanted to prove it wrong (another version of “victim think” – martyrdom).

But this real-life example, paired with yesterday’s realization, about how I’d been engaging in “victim think,” led me to finally understand HOW THIS WORKS.

Passion, true passion, is contagious.  It’s also magnetic.  If you are living your passion, others feel it. They are engaged. They want more of the energy you’re giving out.  And, yes, they are often willing to pay you for it (whether it be directly, through coaching or consulting; or by hiring you for a job; or to write…) It doesn’t matter if you’re talking about knitting, or cookie jars or world peace. If you are truly passionate about it, you will magnetize good things.

Passion Killers

When I was little, my mother was heating grease in a frying pan and the grease got too hot and caught on fire. Mom immediately put a lid on the pan.  This cut off the oxygen to the fire, and it died immediately. Your passion is a flame. It wants to burn brightly. Putting restrictions on it is like covering it with a lid. I don’t think we ever completely “kill” our passion but we can make it extremely difficult to grow beyond a tiny spark.

The following are “lids” or passion killers.

1 – Putting money first (Money is the cart, not the horse.)

My entire life, I’ve attempted to figure out how I was going to “cash in” on my interests.  The resulting ideas have either failed completely or come horribly short of my expectations. But, the times when I’ve just followed my passion, with no thought to the money, I actually attract it!

Our passion is YANG.  Let it lead. Don’t try to force it to fit within preconceived ideas (the equivalent of a “lid”). The Yin balance to this Yang, is that our passion attracts prosperity.

Note: you may not necessarily make as much money with your passion as you would at a “regular” job. But, I’ll wager that you’ll NEED less money because you’ll be healthier and happier. You won’t feel the need to “get away from it all” or to numb yourself with alcohol or mindless television. And, there is a chance your passion could bring in the big bucks too.  Honestly, if you are living your passion, you’ll be happy either way!

Finally, if your passion is organizing or banking or chemistry, the path to money is much easier to see. But, it’s also easier to starve your passion of oxygen by following the money. Remember: Lead with your interest, and then see what jobs follow.

2 – Thinking like a victim

Many people may have to get a job that they don’t like in order to supplement the money from their passion. Or, while waiting for the passion to make money. This is where we can easily get into the “victim” mindset of “this isn’t fair, why do I have to do this?”

Thinking that things happen TO you, extinguishes passion. Recognize your victim thinking and restructure it; see the job as a step towards getting you where you eventually want to be, even if it’s nothing more than “financing” your passion.  Very few successful people started off independently wealthy or made it big immediately.

Furthermore, ANY kind of victim thinking, even if it’s not directly related to your passion, can be the lid that’s starving your flame.

Think of this in terms of manifestation – we are constantly creating our own reality. Creating is active. You are the creator. Do you want to create yourself as a victim or as a VICTOR?

3 – Staying in your head

You can’t figure your passion out in your head. I’ll repeat: Passion is ACTIVE. You must start exploring and see where it takes you. Think you like art? Start drawing. Take a class, see how it evolves.

Be aware of how you feel when you participate in certain activities. Do you notice a spark? Do people respond more positively to you when you talk about certain subjects?

I knew that I had a passion for informal education when I started this website. I love gathering research and sharing with others. I picked the topic of “femininity” for purely academic reasons. I kept at it, and out of that original passion evolved a passion for writing, a passion for the history of women’s activism, a passion for astrology. I fully expect to see more flares!

If you place too many restrictions on yourself (see Passion Killers One and Two above), you are going to have trouble connecting with that flame inside. You’ve got to attack it from many different angles.  Look for “victim think.” Become a problem solver. Stay active. Keep fueling the spark, then the fire, then the blaze…

Each of us comes into this life with passions. In fact, they are the reason you are here!  No passion is too small. No passion is silly.

Read this!

For a metaphysical look at “following your bliss,” read Joseph Campbell’s work.

For a practical look, read Gary Vaynerchuk, who says the same thing about “bliss” but in the language of social media and business. He is a vocal advocate of magnetizing money and a big believer in using the internet to live off of your passion. In his book Crush It!: Why Now is the Time to Cash in on Your Passion, he even outlines how someone can turn a love of BOARD GAMES into a business. (I’m starting to think he’s a genius.)

Wait, there’s more!

I originally wrote this post in Word and when I “saved” it, another document came up with the same title.   I opened the document and all that was there was a link: http://noeticbusiness.net/follow-your-passion/  I apparently thought it was worthy of saving for later. Indeed it was:

In The Attractor Factor, Dr. Joe Vitale cites a study where a group of 1,500 people were given the option of joining two groups. Group A was a group of people who were going to pick a career they believed was going to be a practical way to make a lot of money and then they were going to follow their passions after they made enough money.

1,255 people joined Group A.

Group B was a group of people who were going to pick a career that they were interested in and passionate about and just trust that the money would come. Only 245 people joined Group B.

20 years later there were 101 millionaires out of the 1,500 people who signed up for the study. 100 of the millionaires came from group B: the group of people who followed their passions and just trusted that the money would come.

Only 1 out of the 1,255 people who picked a career because they believed it was a practical way to make a living actually became a millionaire.