Follow Your Heart- Here's Why

When your “intuition” or “heart” is screaming at you to do something, you should definitely follow it full force and ignore what everyone else is saying.

Though I’d be lying to say if it would work out 100% of the time. Sometimes it doesn’t, and that’s exactly what’s meant to happen- but then through it not working out you’ll learn something which enriches your life so much. At least that’s what has happened to me.

When you follow your heart, you’ll start to notice strange Universal synchronicity happening around you as if the Universe was encouraging you to keep walking your path.

Let’s take a deep dive into what “your heart” is and isn’t, and why you should follow it.

The Heart vs. Emotions

Your “heart” is not your emotions- though it can definitely feel emotional. The two are very distinct.

Your emotions include feelings such as joy, excitement, disappointment, lust, and fear. Your heart or “intuitive feeling” is deeper than all of this. For example, you can feel fear at what your heart is telling you to do.

The intuitive feeling or heart is an “inner knowing,” desire, or calling. Everyone has it, but unfortunately we in our society have learned how to cut off our heart’s feelings in order to please everyone else and follow the “safe path.”

Everyone has some type of whisper deep down- but most choose to ignore it, favoring “logic” rather than the subconscious.

Following your heart does not mean you make stupid and miscalculated decisions. It means that you follow your heart, but take your brain with you.

It’s kind of hard to explain, but deep down you should get what I am saying. Everyone has experienced this intuitive knowing at some point in their life. You’d be lying if you’d say otherwise, or you’ve cut yourself so far off from your “inner self” that you can’t feel it anymore.

When you “follow your heart,” your heart gets stronger and you have more self-esteem. You feel more energized and alive. Universal synchronicity starts to happen.

Example: Following Your Heart

I make money online and can live anywhere in the world. This was an example of “following my heart.” It was very much something I wanted to do, so I made it happen.

I meet people all the time who have dreams & passions but never take action on them. They want to be photographers, Instagram famous, or world travelers yet stay in University.

The number of people who tell me they want to “travel the world” yet do nothing to do it are too many to count. Either they aren’t following their heart, or they don’t really mean those words.

Recently I purchased a one-way ticket to Bali, a place that my heart has always told me to go to.

In the past few days I’ve felt super energized, I’ve been very busy & immersed in life (in a good way), yet before that wasn’t so much the case. What happened is I “followed my heart” and got rewarded as a result.

What It IS NOT

That being said following your heart isn’t always passionate & energizing. Your heart calls you to what you need to do, but then it can be dispassionate when you have to work & grow.

This is the period in which you have to “stick through it” until the inspiration re-emerges, which it always does.

That being said you also have to make sure that it’s what you really want. A lot of people go to University to “become this or that” yet they don’t even have a true grasp of what it means to be “this or that.”

How can you say you want to be a scientist or lawyer if you’ve never job-shadowed that profession? How can you say you want to police officer if you’ve never job-shadowed a police officer?

Movies & TV shows & “what’s trending” can make us think we want things we don’t actually want. I’d love to be an FBI Agent- except only the type on TV, which isn’t real. The truth about being an FBI agent is completely different than what is depicted of them on media.

If you don’t know what your heart is calling you to do, you can find out by just doing things.

Go job shadow some professions which interest you, go out and live life, etc. Don’t stay at home and do nothing, or follow the common path. Pick goals and start achieving them.

Following your heart is so nuanced, you just have to start doing things in life and you’ll start to figure out what it truly is and what it truly is not. Don’t debate the theory- go out and experience life.

Following Your Heart- Why?

So why should you even follow your heart? What’s wrong with taking the road most traveled with everyone else?

To start, weird Universal synchronicity starts to happen and life gets easier. There is no doubt an energetic component to living life authentically.

That aside, we can even analyze this on a very practical level for those who aren’t so spiritual.

There are 4 possible scenarios in life: Following your heart & succeeding, following your heart & failing, ignoring & failing, ignoring & succeeding.

Most people I know who follow their heart (or inner intuition) succeed because they suddenly get tons of energy, excitement, and joy by following it.

How do I have 137 published blog posts? The heart energizes me for following it. Other authentic activities such as running & yoga energize me. The common thinking would say that running 3 miles in the morning is tiring, when the opposite is true: I have more energy on days I run 3 miles and practice hot yoga later in the day than when I don’t!

Following your heart is simply more exciting than not. What is exciting about the road everyone else travels? If your heart truly calls you to it, then it’ll be exciting and feel right.

If your heart is yours (which it is) then this is your life, and life is meant to be lived, so you should follow your heart and express your life. Denying your heart is denying yourself life.

Now here’s where things get very practical/logical: sometimes you will fail in life. That is a given; nothing is guaranteed. That means even following your heart isn’t guaranteed. However this also means that following the road most traveled isn’t guaranteed- and it certainly is not.

Would you rather fail following your heart and being able to take responsibility, or fail following the path everyone else takes?

For some reason people have the mentality that being with the group is what will make them safer and more secure. That’s often not true.

If I had “followed the group” I’d be in University, perhaps on my second year, spending every day in a library. Instead I’ve lived almost a year in Bulgaria, visited 12 countries, and I’ll be surfing in my 13th country in 3 weeks.

Let’s suppose even I had failed in “following my heart.” Well then I could just go to University, and I’d be in my 1st year instead of 2nd… umm, big deal, right?

One of the ways that the masses suck you in is a false sense of urgency. People are so afraid to drop out or follow their heart because they’ll “miss out,” when really they can just go back.

I’m using University vs. entrepreneurship as an example, but obviously apply this to your own scenario- if you’re going for a degree you’re not passionate about, change degrees! It’s not so complicated. It’s your life.

Responsibility vs. Blame

If you follow your heart and fail, at least it’s your failure. If you follow everyone else and fail, then you have to blame everyone else. When you blame others, you lose your own power to create your own life.

You die before you die, and you don’t even become enlightened. You’re dead because you’ve handed over your life for others to make choices for you. What’s even the point of being alive if you work to please everyone else?

Is Failure Real?

On my first international flight from Phoenix to Montreal I had a layover in Chicago. I was talking with a random guy while we both ate. He had traveled the world with his wife, and I was telling him about all the to-be adventures I wished to have.

An old man scooted over and joined the conversation. He began telling me about an awesome opportunity at Facebook. You could be an intern and get free food & board, learn how to code, etc.

I agreed it was a good opportunity, but I began to get suspicious of where this is going. Finally his truth came out:

“So you should really get a degree, then do a year-long internship for Facebook or Google so you have experience & a degree to ‘fall back on.'”

What the fuck? I’m literally starting to travel the world and my internet business is working great, and yeah that makes sense, let me just close shop and buy a one-way back to Phoenix and study/work for 5 years before traveling.

This mentality of “avoiding failure” is so prevalent in our society it absolutely blows my mind.

It literally makes no logical sense, yet those that perpetuate this belief act as if it is the most logical thing to do! I’ve had other entrepreneur friends recommend it, and even with great effort it can’t make sense.

If you start an online business (or follow your heart in any way) you aren’t guaranteed success by virtue of following your heart. You still have to put in effort. I had to actually figure out how digital marketing works, not just magically succeed.

What IS “failure?” I guess it would be losing all clients, or not being able to get a client… in which case you just, you know, figure out how to get/keep clients & deliver value for them? It’s not so complicated.

And let’s say that I follow digital marketing and in 3 years it stops working, for whatever reason.

This will never happen, but let’s say it does. When then, why not go to University then? Why do that now when I could do this then?

Think about it: if I fail in entrepreneurship I can always go back to University & get a job. If I don’t fail, then I can just continue. Going to University, getting a degree, then succeeding in entrepreneurship is just… stupid wouldn’t you agree? Why not just go succeed in the first place & save yourself 4 years of your life?

It’s not like failing in entrepreneurship puts a big “FAILURE” tattoo on your forehead that prevents you from getting into any University either.

Again, I should add that this is a more personal example, however you can apply this to your own life situation all the same.

The man who also told me to get a degree did so under the assumption that it was somehow a magical “safe bullet.” It isn’t. I could very well get that degree to find the world has completely changed, and my degree is now irrelevant.

I seriously don’t understand how getting a degree in my case is safer than just going for entrepreneurship from the start. It just doesn’t make sense.

Whatever your dreams are, go for them now. There is nothing safe or guaranteed in life!

Following your heart is the only safe path in fact because it is authentic to who you are.

And Then You Die

In case the reaper didn’t tell you, you’re gonna die. Maybe it’s 80. Maybe you’re a lucky 115.

Though maybe… you’re an unlucky 25. Or an unlucky 21. Or an unlucky 28. Have you had any near-death experiences? Do you know anyone who died under 30?

While not a pleasant thing to think about, it’s the truth. You can die young. You only have so much time on this planet so you minus well follow your heart as much as you can before you die.

Don’t waste time creating a “back up plan,” unless it’s genuinely sensible. For example I would not recommend quitting a job and going “all in” for entrepreneurship until you have enough money in savings to safely figure things out. People who quit with 1 month’s worth of savings and try to “figure it out” are generally not wise, though…. it sure does kick their ass into action.

When you live your life do you want to look back on how you wasted 5 prime years of your life to create a University back-up plan, only to not need it? Or would you rather look back on this amazing adventure?

Again I refer back to the example of how “following your heart” (or inner intuition) is “life,” and denying it is “death.” Most people die before they die because they give up on what makes them feel alive.