If it feels this good, it must be right.

How much do you trust your gut and how much are you influenced by others?

You know when you make a “gut decision” and you just know you’re right? You can even analyze it and prove it wrong statistically, rationally or even logically but you know you’re doing the right thing.

Here’s my day:

1. Fired client (I didn’t want).
2. Shut down a hosting server.
3. Held onto a client (I wanted).
4. Updated billing and deposits to new bank account (and closed the old business account).
5. Worked with illustrator on next book.

It’s all geared towards the future–and shutting down the past. It feels so good I get the chills (no, really). Sure, you could say that if you ate ice cream and played Parcheesi all day, you might feel great, too. But it’s not sustainable. That’s not your deep passion that drives you to do better, to be better.

I suppose this might sound fanatic. Like it’s OK for someone to do something horrible if they are really passionate about it. But I suppose I’m just not talking about something bad, it’s all good. It’s all for the better, it’s improvement, it’s joy, it’s fun, it’s play. I even have a hard time understanding “bad” at the point where I am. I can’t even understand (most of) the news. Maybe I’m just on cloud nine.

But is that so bad? If I’m on cloud nine and I pull a couple people up who are trying to get up here, that’s just more good up here and maybe that could influence some of the bad.

In fact, I oddly feel that I can understand fanatics (or, unfortunately, extremists) better now. I know I’m on the right path and it’s going to be quite hard to even nudge me off of it. I could see how if I were heading down a negative path how people could have a problem with that. Or down a path that people thought wasn’t right or good or, well, what they thought was right or good.

I started this post with a smile because what I’m doing these days is just plain making me so happy. My point was going to be about how if it felt right, then you should do that or pursue what helps make you feel so good. But where is the guideline? Who says what’s right and wrong or the good or bad path to be passionate about?

I’m writing children’s books. What if I was passionate about ______________ ? I’m not even going to say something. Just fill in the blank for what you think would be a bad path to head down. I think it’s a good idea, it feels good, I’m helping people, I’m improving my relationship with my kids (and pretty much everyone around them–and me).

But what if someone is a passionate believer in something bad? Maybe my passionate belief in something good can duke it out and we’ll see who “wins.” Maybe I’ll just keep going forward and not dwell on it.