Follow Your Passion - Wait, No - Your Curiosity

Yesterday while walking my dogs I listened to a podcast featuring Elizabeth Gilbert, who spoke about how not everyone has one thing that they are meant to do in life, or one single path to follow. Some of us are hummingbirds, flitting from flower to flower as we fill up on one interest and pursue the next. "Follow your curiosity," she said, and an invisible, subconscious weight lifted from my shoulders as my dogs sniffed and peed their way along the sidewalk.Because this is how I've always operated: curiously. I have always followed my curiosity - academically, personally, professionally. I have wanted to do and be so many things throughout my life, and I've felt guilt about that over the years because shouldn't I have become one big thing by now? An archaeologist or a CEO or an author or something?Perhaps instead I'm meant to continually become. At some point over the last 18 months, I became a non-drinker. I did this by following my curiosity. I wanted to see how I felt after completing Dry January, and then The Alcohol Experiment, and then taking a full year off drinking. What would it feel like to not indulge an alcohol craving? What if I could regain the reins of my life from the wine witch? Could I ever get to a point where I didn't want to drink?These were some of my questions. And I could only answer them by following my path, one day - and sometimes one hour - at a time.Now that I am alcohol-free I want to write about it. Really write. Like, write a whole book. But am I really capable of this? I haven't dedicated my life to being a writer. I don't know if I would ever want to write a second book, or even a magazine article. But this one book project has taken hold of my heart and won't let go. It's the flower to which I keep flitting back. I remain curious about my ability to do the writing and navigate the publishing world. So as long as this curiosity has hold of me, I am going to pursue it. One day - one hour, one sentence - at a time.In this wonderfully mindset-shifting podcast, Elizabeth Gilbert said that following your curiosity may in fact lead you to your passion. Wouldn't that be grand? But if not, if I am not meant to be a published author, I can and will always be a writer. And I know that the experience of trying to write a book about my journey to alcohol freedom will, at the very least, lead me to the next delectable flower, and the next.