Finding Your Passion: Marie Forleo's Journey to Fulfillment | Marie Forleo EP 579

0:00Hi, my name is Lewis Howes and welcome to the Daily Motivation Show.

0:11I want to talk about how you actually got to where you are now because this isn't what you used to do back in the day. You used to be, I guess, on the New York Stock Exchange floor, right? Yes. And then you were a bartender as well, I think, during or after that period. Yes. And you were a fitness dance instructor. Yes. And probably doing a number of other things. Did you ever imagine earlier in your career that you'd be where you are now? I think there was glimmers of it. When I was on the New York Stock Exchange, it was an amazing environment. There's no seats on the floor, and you're running around like a crazy person all day, which is great for me because I had a lot of energy.

0:47But I realized no matter how many millions people were making around me, they seemed and they shared that they felt spiritually bankrupt. And I just couldn't envision myself going to the same place every single day and living for like those two weeks a year when you could take vacation just felt like a mismatch for my DNA. So I knew I was meant to do something that was different. I knew that I wanted to make a positive impact on a lot of people's lives. I knew I wanted to travel. I had a sense that I wanted to teach somehow, but I couldn't have imagined this because I don't think I even knew this could exist.

1:20Yeah. Yeah. Well, back then there wasn't even the internet probably, or there was, no one was doing this. Not at this level. And you know, after I left Wall Street and I was going on of my odyssey to figure out what I was supposed to do with my life and I worked in magazine publishing because I thought that that would be a good mix for me because I loved business but I was also really creative. As a little girl I would draw and paint all the time and I thought I was either going to be an animator for Disney or a fashion designer. Was that your dream as a child? I was a multi-passionate kid so when I look back at those kid books my mom kept like really great records and it says you know what do you want to be when you grow up and I would answer at six with like five or six different professions from like I wanted to be an artist and a dancer and an actress and a writer and a teacher there was always a million things you've done all those things it sounds like right yeah but I even remember as a kid I was like gosh choosing one thing sounds so boring and I know it's great for some people because that's their truth but for me there was always a lot happening so even in the magazine publishing world um it was awesome and I'm so grateful for that experience but I kept having that feeling that I think many of us have, this is not where I'm supposed to be.

2:29This is not what I'm meant to do. And I would look ahead at my bosses, you know, the publisher of the magazine, the editor in chief of the magazine, and I would see that path and I said, gosh, I don't want to be them. I'm not aspiring to get that job. So if I don't want to climb this ladder, what am I doing here? Like I'm wasting my time and their time. And it started to really gnaw at me. I had so much potential and it felt like time was passing me by. And again, I was all of like 21 years old, but at that point I was like, you know, a racehorse ready to get out of the gate And I just felt like I couldn't get traction I felt like a loser to be honest with you because I knew I was smart I knew I was driven.

3:08I knew I was ready to work hard, but I felt like I couldn't figure out where my place was So how does someone take the steps to figuring out what it is? They're really passionate about and take those steps to start doing it so they can make a full-time living doing what they love My favorite life mantra that I live by is that clarity comes from engagement not thought. I remember being in those jobs trying to think my way into what I was supposed to be doing with my life. And at that time the internet was again just kind of new. And one day I was at Mademoiselle and I was searching around online.

3:40And I stumbled upon this article about a new profession at the time called life coaching. And I say new at the time because now it seems like everybody is life coach. But I couldn't deny how something in my body and in my soul seemed to light up. And the more I learned about it, the more I got lit up. And so I researched and I found this place called Coach University. And it was the first online coach training. So they teach you to be a business coach and a life coach. And it was three years. And you do it all over teleseminars. And again, this all sounded brand new back in the late 90s. So I signed up and I continued my job at the magazine during the day.

4:20But my point here is I did something. You know, I got that article and I was like, wow, that inspired me. Let me go call the coach training place and check out what that is. Oh, let me go sign up and see what this is like. And out of the act of doing it, out of engaging, I kept getting the signals that this is for me. So many of us can think in our minds like, okay, I'm dissatisfied. I'm not fulfilled. I don't know what I want to do. But we try and think our way into an answer rather than start getting into action to try different things, to sample them. You can take a class. You can take a physical class.

4:52You can read a book. You can start talking to people. There are so many different strategic ways to engage in an idea without quitting your job, without putting yourself at risk, without doing anything that would jeopardize your well-being in the current moment, but set yourself up for success down the line. Then there was this whole other certification process. process and to be really honest I just I was didn't feel called to do it I had other things by that point but I was like okay I want to get a product out there I also got involved with health and fitness so there's only 24 hours in a day and I just I chose not to get certified and I was more interested in could I get someone results was I a good coach could I positively impact their life could I help them get to the place where they wanted to go and could I be an awesome coach again from experience not just because I had a piece of paper So that for me was more exciting and that's what I focused on.

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