From a very early age, many of you are bombarded from elders with the necessity of having a well thought out plan for the future.

It often includes a job you call your profession, a steady salary, paid holidays and a pension scheme.

Sound familiar?

But what happens if you dare to think at a tangent rather than this horizontal line?

What if the profession you desire doesn’t conform with the encouraged template and comes from a place of passion rather than from the recommended security?

These are questions that many of my clients are challenged with.

They’ve been paying the bills for years without fully honouring their heart and they come to me when a life-experience or comment from another nudges them awake.

Only yesterday, a client of mine was questioning whether to follow her heart and consider a career change into creativity or listen to her family and stay safe.

Is it ok to settle for something just because it pays the bills?

Or is there added pressure to follow your passion AND work out how to pay the bills as well?

How emotionally and physically draining can this perspective be?

Can it lead to burnout?

For those of you who define success financially, these questions may never arise because you’ll do whatever it takes to grow your wealth - often without a care of whether you actually enjoy it.

However, for those of you who are driven by an intrinsic fulfilment that nurtures and nourishes within this is probably a daily conflict.

A global Gallup poll revealed that out of the world’s one billion full-time workers, only 15% were actually engaged at work.

If we flip this, it means that a whopping 85% of people are more than likely not even interested in what they do in a working week.

Perhaps you’re one of them?

If so, as a creative do you feel external pressure to continue with your profession or internal pressure to leave and follow your passion?

There are so many reasons to follow your heart and source a job that will soothe you daily.

Golden nuggets like developing your courage in the process, remaining hopeful and young because you dared to dream, appreciating the experience that failure is a part of your success, limiting feelings of regret plus learning to love yourself along the way are all benefits.

There are also an abundance of reasons why you might stay exactly where you are simply following the money.

Concerns like making the wrong decision, personal responsibilities, fear of being unemployed, anxiety of the unknown and future salary worries. These are all anxious thoughts that allow you to remain small and live unfulfilled dreams.

They divert you away from challenging your negative narrative like Erin Hanson’s enquires,

“What if I fall?

O darling, but what if you fly?”

Let’s not confuse though following your passion with irrational, impulsive decision-making. To follow your passion and survive financially you must have a strategic plan and a clear road map to follow.

It’s then that considerations for change can occur but not without fear and apprehension.

If you’re someone who works to live rather than lives to work, there’s a chance that you’ve discovered a work/life balance that works for you.

Ideally, your work does not stress you out each day, reduce feelings of self-worth nor elicit emotions like resentment or anger.

By working to live, you’ve found ways to enjoy life outside of work and can contribute to society as a functioning member. You’ve created boundaries between your professional and personal life and built in time for others.

If I’m honest, I’m challenged to think of negative impacts with this mindset.

On the other hand, when you live to work, your work is your life with no space for anything or anyone else. It’s very linear with limited room for growth and development.

It is however said that when you love what you do, you never work a day in your life.

So where do you draw the line?

Is living to work without boundaries and time for difference a healthy perspective? Or can we make space within it to do what we love and maintain balance?

Steve Jobs once said,

“The only way to do great works is to love what you do. If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking. Don’t settle.”

These are definitely wise words however if you’re still wondering whether to explore the leap, what will it take for your intrinsic thirst for passion to outweigh your extrinsic desire for safety and settling?

Could you create both and at what cost?

If you’re curious to explore, click Work With Nicolette and let’s have a relaxed chat about it.