What do you love? All to often people are told that their dreams are nothing more than a fairy tale – “It’s a fantasy” – they say. What people really mean by that, is they are looking for you, depending on you, to validate their choice to let go of their dreams.

When I announced to my family that I was selling everything and moving into an RV to spend more time with my family and travel full time, they couldn’t believe it. They thought I went mad, and it made some of them upset. I’ve met others who think I’m a trust fund baby or that I am cheating the system, and they feel seriously threatened because I made a different choice than they did, and I see and live my life so unconventionally.

People like us who boldly grab hold of our dreams and our passion, threaten the choices of other people, who in most cases abandoned their dreams for the “safe choice.”

No one ever went into business without some kind of dream, even if it was poorly thought through. There was a carat, a reward of some kind you saw in your mind, that you hoped to receive after becoming an entrepreneur.

That’s why you started; that’s why you keep going.

Stop looking at purpose, and stop looking for validation from the people around you. You’re not going to get it, and it doesn’t really matter to begin with. You don’t want it, because if you get it, it means you’re just like them. Look instead to your passion. If you live by passion, you’ll automatically find fullfillment.

In order to find your passion, you often have to stop looking to purpose and ask yourself this question: If you could do anything in the world, and you knew you couldn’t fail, what would that be?

You have to ask that question because passion can easily be buried under the false belief that its wrong or not possible. In the worst cases, sometimes what you’re deeply passionate about is the complete opposite of whatever you might be doing at the moment.

My business partner, Myron, is a living example of this. I first met Myron and went through a huge transformation in my understanding of what, exactly, he does. I thought he had a poly furniture manufacturing company and I assumed that was what he was passionate about. After a while, I understood that his real passion was furniture design, and manufacturing his furniture lines was his outlet for that passion; its what made his passion possible, just like the business woman I mentioned above.

Myron showed me there is a difference between what you do and who you are, and sometimes what you do is necessary to facilitate who you are.

Likewise, I found myself owning a pet supplement brand. I don’t even have a pet. Hmmm. I had a hard time with that company. Sure, I could have invested time and money into making it successful, but why waste my time and my life for something I don’t care about, and ultimately wasn’t part of my vision for what I wanted my life to be?

So I let it go.

It sucks letting things go. It feels like a failure, but one thing I had to keep in my mind was the fact that holding onto it, was taking a path towards a much larger failure. Letting the wrong things go quickly sets you up for faster growth, and a quicker victory in the long run.

Sometimes doing the wrong thing and learning to let go of it, is a necessary part of life. Doing the wrong thing is better than doing nothing, because it leads to clarity. Oftentimes, you can gain clarity by simply redefining what it is you love in life and about your company.

It reveals why you went into business in the first place. Refocus that love, that passion, and create a vision from that passion that shows how best to move your company, and your life, forward. Stop seeing your life for the limitations other people place on you and start seeing it for the endless possibilities to create what you love.

Take time to really explore the topic of your passion, and understand what makes you tick and what draws you to those things.

Vision takes over from there. Once you confess and release passion back into your life, its usually fairly easy to see yourself living out your passion, especially if you’ve spent a lot of time avoiding it, denying it, or hiding it. Your mind really is, endlessly creative.

Taking the time to break down your barriers and find your center, to get yourself back on track, is one of the best investments you can ever make in yourself. So go do it!

It costs you nothing, and what you gain from it, will change your life.