How to Follow Your Heart

Does anyone else look for signs? I’m kind of superstitious and will find myself saying, “Oh, this has to be a sign…” A string of red lights when I’m running late? A sign that my next meeting won’t go well. Finding twenty dollars in a pair of jeans I haven’t worn since last year? Definitely a sign that today will be a good day. If you’re looking for your own sign right now… this may just be it. Maxie is here today sharing her tips for how to follow your heart:

How to Follow Your Heart

Guest Post by Maxie McCoy

Your heart, while full of love and kindness, isn’t always the most logical thing. There will be so many times that you feel the pull of you heart only to ignore it. To tell it it’s crazy. To push the whispers from your soul back down so you can keep chugging along. 

You’re not alone in doing this. We all have silent pulls of the heart that we softly ignore. We feel the tug and act like we didn’t. We talk over the whispers and pretend like it’s not what we want.

And better yet, we out rationalize our heart and our feelings. We say it’s crazy. It’s risky. It’s not what anyone else is doing. We say it would never work out. And we put up BIG WARNING SIGNS about the hurt and devastation that could be ahead. 

Don’t let the crazy head rationalizing keep you from following you heart. Look, following it might not always be logical, but as I learned it doesn’t really need to be. It’s what is bubbling up from your soul. It’s what you feel totally called to go after. And you’ve got to no matter how scary or uncertain it might be.

So whether this means your heart is screaming to change majors or change schools…. or to break up with the partner you’ve secretly fallen out of love with for months… or to close the book on the side hustle you wanted to give a try…to move to a new city where you barely know anyone…or to spend your summer traveling out of a backpack instead of hanging sand side with your besties… here’s a few keys to following that call of the heart: 

Don’t wait

When your heart speaks and gives you a clear directive, it doesn’t last forever. It will slowly dissipate into white noise of the background. Which is why you can’t wait. If you have something that gave you butterflies in your stomach, do one thing – no matter how small – to make it somewhat real. This can be as simple as a 4-hour long google search or texting your sister with OMG I think I’m going to… It’ll put the tug of your heart wheels into motion.

Know that fear WILL try to talk you out of it

Once you’re following your heart, wherever it called you to, there’s going to be this loud dude with a megaphone and a whistle on sidelines waving, screaming, and trying to get you to stop. His name is fear. And whatever you do, you have to tune him out. Keep sprinting by him. Keep focusing on your heart. Ninety-nine percent of what he has to say is total BS. The other 1% is just trying to keep you physically safe (aka the good fear). 

Line up your support circle

Nobody has ever followed their heart alone. We all need our biggest fans to think that we can. Check this though: not everyone is going to approve of your heart-following ways. Nor do you need them to. So pick out your closest pack of unconditional lovers and keep them close for when you get freaked out or you start second guessing. It’ll be the support circle that magnifies the message of the heart. 

Remind yourself you can

Once upon a time following my heart was so scary, uncertain, and nauseating that I literally wrote post it notes with pep talks to myself that said things like “Big dreams require even bigger discomfort” and “Magic happens outside of your comfort zone.” It was little reminders that I could do this, that I must not turn around. Whatever your ways, find opportunities along the way to remind yourself you can– whether it’s pep talks in the mirror, daily alerts in your calendar, or rereading your favorite inspiring quotes. You’ll need the self love. 

Following your heart is never a bad idea. It may not always turn out exactly how you planned, but the biggest regrets we have in life come from not going after what we desired deep down. So follow, follow, follow your heart. 

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