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I’ll be honest: When Eat, Pray, Love came out, I wasn’t a fan. I saw the movie, I read the book, I dogeared a few lovely passages, but it wasn’t for me. I figured I wasn’t a Liz Gilbert person.
Then I saw her speak while working for Oprah’s Life You Want Tour, and I was blown away. Her approach to public speaking — weaving in storytelling with facts, and speaking with such clarity that complex topics suddenly seem a lot less fuzzy and abstract.
Gilbert recently released Big Magic, a nonfiction book about following your passion and living creatively, which she discussed in depth in an interview with self-help coach and YouTube phenom, Marie Forleo. My favorite part of the talk happens right around the 13:30 mark, when Gilbert provides a no-nonsense take on finding your purpose in life:
“The question is not, ‘What do I love?’ The question is, ‘What do I love so much that I don’t mind eating the sh*t sandwich that comes along with doing that thing?'”
Yup, a sh*t sandwich. That’s the sucky aspect of following your passion; the rejections, the criticism, the months or years of scraping by, working a full-time job so you can devote nights and weekends to this passion project. It’s basically looking at the downside of following this dream, and determining whether it’s worth it. You may have some ambitions that just aren’t worth the sh*t sandwich, like maybe you’d love to be a singer-songwriter, but touring the country living out of vans and singing in front of just a few people isn’t worth it to you. But chances are there’s another dream that’s worth the bad days to pursue it, like starting your own business or going to med school or acting.
Even when you’ve “made it,” the sh*t sandwich doesn’t go away, Gilbert explains. It just changes, ever so slightly.
Watch the interview for yourself:
I’m going to check out Big Magic in the weeks to come. If you have, I’d love to hear your thoughts: What’d you think of the book? Did any parts stand out to you?
This post is part of Life Between Weekends’ Tuesday Takeaway series. Every Tuesday, we’ll share the most compelling insight we’ve gleaned from a book, movie, tour, documentary or article to inspire you during the workday.