If you are going to achieve what you have a passion for, you just may have to burn the boats.

Of course, this is a reference to explorer Hernan Cortez. In the early 1500’s he set sail for Mexico with an army of 600 men. To keep the men from retreating he gave the order to burn the boats. They actually just beached the boats but the idea was that they had to be successful or they would have no way to get back to their homeland of Cuba.

So like Cortez, we need to burn our boats in terms of situations that are not helping us achieve our goals. Let me give some specific examples of how this can work.

You may be in a job that you no longer enjoy. Or it may be a relationship that has become unhealthy or unloving. It might be that where you live is not in a neighborhood or city that you want to live in forever. How do you get from where you are to where you want to be? The first step is to burn the boats?

But wait, you’re thinking, do you mean that someone should quit their job, divorce their spouse, and put up a for sale sign in the front yard of the family home? Not exactly…but close. Let me explain further.

Take your job, for example. Who says that you must stay with a job that you have been in for many years? If the job no longer brings you joy you must leave it behind. You are not doing anyone a favor by staying in a position that you do not want to be working at anymore. Furthermore, there is someone else who would love to do your job. It is all in how you think about your life.

We constantly worry about what "they" would think if we did or did not do a particular thing. Just who exactly are they? They are the nameless, faceless people that we allow to run our lives. Years later, after we have spent our time doing things we did not enjoy, where are these people? Nowhere to be found. And if we could find them and remind them that they had encouraged us to do a certain thing I guarantee you that they would not even remember having said any such thing. So what is the answer?

Live your life doing the things that bring you happiness and joy. Work at a job that you look forward to doing. Forget about how much something costs or something pays and live your life to the fullest. If you work towards joy the money will follow.

Observe small children and see how they understand this so well. They do not care about what others say and they do not judge others for what they do. They live totally in the moment and enjoy each second. They breathe deeply, laugh heartily, and sleep soundly. It is only after we get older that we begin to worry about what they will think if we do not do something their way.

When you wake up in the morning see how you feel. Your emotional guidance system will let you know if you are on the right path or not. If you feel good you are moving towards a positive experience that will move you closer to where you want to be. If you feel bad you are moving in the wrong direction. We call this intuition, but as we get older we tend to discount these basic feelings that tell us what is right for each of us as individuals. We are still concerned with what other people will think.

Forget them! Burn the boats and live each minute as though it were your last. You will be happier and others will be attracted to your natural joy and ease.