What Sets Your Soul on Fire?

A phrase Melissa has taught me that I apply daily in my life, and how you can do the same.

Written By: Sabrina Riback

Do you strive to wake up chasing your dreams and doing what you love every day? Do you wish to come to a point in your life where work doesn't feel like work because you are so enamored by what you're doing? Do you wish to just be so soaked up in the moment that your passion is contagious? Then this phrase will change your life. One of the first things Melissa taught me was the importance of doing what you are passionate about and chasing your dreams. No dream is too big, you truly can curate the life and career of your dreams if you do “what sets your soul on fire” every day.

So what does it mean to set your soul on fire, and how do you do so?

To set your soul on fire means to do something that you love so much that holds true to your core values, that every day when you do your work your soul feels happy. You become so possessed by ambition and passion that you have the ability to move mountains.

A compilation of different personal growth exercises will help you discover your passions and truly what sets your soul on fire. The first exercise Melissa recommended to me that helped me the most was looking back at my personal life events, what they taught me, and in turn which brought me the most joy. I would ask you, readers, to write down the first 50 life events that come to mind. From the time you were born to now. You can include profound life events and minuscule life events like trying your favorite food for the first time or how breaking your arm showed you how much you are fascinated by the medical field. So alongside the reading of your Clues experience, take out a piece of paper and just list these events. Analyze these events closely and recognize which brought you the most joy, and which events felt like they made time stop. For me, I would get caught up in creative activities for hours when I was young. I would sew, make bracelets, or paint, and it made time “stop” because of how much I loved it. Now I apply that creative side to me in my work daily. I also really enjoy creating something new and innovative and pitching it to anyone who will listen. I now apply creativity, innovation, and sales to my work daily because I remember how much I love it and get “sucked in” when I'm working. This feeling is what curates the act of setting my soul on fire. So, step one is to write down your life events, and take note of the feelings you loved and how you can apply them into your daily life.

What I would recommend you do next, which was actually a contest prompt from Season 1 American Intern contest, is to write 2 stories. One story is a day in the life of your average day. Let's say Wednesday for example. Write everything you do start to finish.

• What does your morning routine look like?

• What do you have for breakfast?

• Do you go to the gym in the morning or the afternoon? Do you exercise at all?

• Who do you socialize with?

• How do you feel when your head hits the pillow at night? Do you feel fulfilled?

After you write this current story of your life, write on a separate sheet of paper, an average day in your life, but if you were living your dream life. If you could have the most perfect day, what would it look like? Ask yourself the same questions as above, and write your answer as the happiest, most fulfilled version of yourself.

After writing this second story, analyze it. Take note of how you feel when reading it, and compare it to your life now. What looks different? What looks the same? Is there anything from your perfect day story that you can implement in your life currently?

This exercise will be able to bring you clarity if you need to make some changes to your daily life. A great place to start so that you can attainably make small switches would be to implement exercise in your daily life. Exercise produces happy hormones, boosts creativity, and just overall puts you in a better mood which in turn will make you more productive at work. According to The Happiness Advantage, who put on a study of people with depression who exercise and people with depression who don't exercise, they gathered that exercise has the same effect as antidepressants. The Happiness Advantage had 2 groups, one group of depressed people who were put on antidepressants, and one group of depressed people who were told to exercise daily. The benefits of exercise were so similar to those on antidepressants, that they couldn't decipher which was which. This just goes to show you how beneficial exercise is, and if you need to make a small change in your life to help you get to a place where you feel as if you are setting your soul on fire daily, exercise is a great place to start.

Now that you have some tools to be able to implement in your life, you will start becoming more self-aware and proactive to create the life of your dreams. The other exercises in Clues will help you get to this point as well so make sure to read and take notes during your Clues journey!

Thanks for reading, and we look forward to seeing you next week!

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