3 Keys to Making Money with Your Passion

The entrepreneurial dream: making money from a passion.

Whether that means running a successful business or nonprofit organization, or selling your books or art, it’s what keeps many of us up at night, longing to do.

Yet, so few of us ever actually succeed in profiting from our passions. Why is that?

Consider the following three common reasons (I’m also including tips for getting started on the path toward doing so).

1. It’s easier to settle.

First, there’s the simple math: you have a very small number of things you’re most passionate about, whereas there are lots and lots of ways to make money. We will often settle for something we’re “good” at doing, rather than work toward what we dream about doing.

We are also programmed to believe that we shouldn’t chase our dreams. In some cases, those who caution you against “going for it” really do have your best intentions in mind—they don’t want to see you hurt, or they want to see you succeed financially, but don’t believe following your passions is the way to do it.

In other cases, though, they might be projecting their own crushed dreams on you, or are so unhappy and/or stuck in their own fears that they try and drag you down, too.

At the end of the day, the “why” probably doesn’t matter. You’re still stuck with your own set of fears, worries, negative beliefs, and “shoulds,” so you decide to take the easier route. You do the thing you’re “good” at, because it’s “safe,” and you don’t have to confront the noise in your head (aka limiting beliefs).

The problem? Alas, your dreams don’t just disappear because you don’t think they’re “convenient” or “possible.”

Their whisper will become louder and louder until one day, you realize you can no longer ignore them.

Tip: Begin taking some steps TODAY toward following your passions.

If you don’t, you run the risk of having the choice made for you.

2. You’re not clear on your passion.

Maybe you’re unsure of what you’re passionate about—you just know it’s not what you’re doing now.

If that’s the case, it then goes back to the first reason above—it’s simply easier to not find it. After all, you’d likely need to do some deep inner work to clear the “noise” (worry, anxiety, fear, anger, grief, etc.), so you could actually hear what your inner guidance is telling you to do.

Tip: Just because you’re not clear right now doesn’t mean you won’t end up burning it all to the ground one day.

You know in your heart there’s something else you’re supposed to be doing, right?

Even if you don’t know what it is.

There may come a time when your heart decides it’s tired of you not listening. That feeling you have inside you, telling you that what you’re doing isn’t really “it”?

It’s not going to go away just because you’re ignoring, burying, or pushing it away.

The best thing you can do is start taking steps now to honor it: either by taking some action toward getting clear, or by simply working through the crap in your head that’s keeping you stuck, so you can hear your inner guidance.

3. It’s not showing up the way you thought it would.

Maybe you took the plunge and started a business, only to discover it’s not what you expected, and, you don’t actually like what you’re doing.

Perhaps you’re passionate about something you don’t know how to make money with.

Or maybe, you really thought your passion was to do something a specific way, but that way no longer works for you. (I.e., You’re an artist who needs to be in the studio every day, but you seem to lose all inspiration when you’re all by yourself in a studio.)

Tip: Surrender and trust.

The Divine (whether that is God or Source or the Universe or your own inner guidance, or a combination of all) knows what it’s doing.

It’s got this.

The more you fight or try and impose your will about what you think you want, the more it’s either not going to happen, or you’re going to find everything suddenly difficult and complicated as things seem to refuse to fall into place the way you hoped.

But if you surrender and trust, you’ll likely find yourself on a path you may not have even known was there, and while it’s nothing what you thought it was going to be, somehow, it all comes together.

Now, it’s not easy to surrender and trust. So again, doing the inner work and clearing the “noise” from your head makes it far easier.

So, what do all of these reasons people don’t pursue their passions have in common?

You must do the inner work to clear out the worry, anxiety, grief, fear, anger, etc. out of your head before you can actually get on the path to living your passion.

As someone who has done it, I can tell you it’s not easy—but it’s definitely worth it.

The reason it’s “easier” to ignore your passions is because you don’t have to come face to face with your inner demons and shadows. Yet only by loving and integrating all the lost pieces of yourself, even the super-hard ones to love, will you discover the path to making money with your passion.

If you’re not willing to do that work, it’s going to be a lot tougher, if not impossible, to actually get there.

The choice is yours.

If you’d like to dig into this topic more, you may enjoy reading Love-Based Mission.