I’m a huge fan of passion projects and have written about them many times, but something came to me during one of those delightful 3 am moments when you are cursing your bladder and knowing that you won’t sleep until you have scribbled the message from the divine.
You’d think that the divine would have the decency to wait till perhaps your dog walk – but no, out they come and demand you scribble harder.
Ok, you can of course ask Spirit to visit another time, but I am a sucker for a 3 am download.
One such scribble session had me going back through the stuff that I had helped people with in my business – the books I have helped women write. The frameworks, programmes, and even a thriving community. All strategic, intentional and all good work.
I certainly had no shortage of passion projects – that’s for sure.
But there was something I wasn’t doing.
Something that bothered and niggled me. Something I kept postponing with perfectly reasonable excuses: ‘When things are more stable.’ ‘When I have more time.’ ‘When it makes strategic sense.’ Everyone loves a good excuse – right?
I was writing about creativity, reinvention, reclaiming your wild voice, and how to stop betraying yourself, whilst doing exactly that to myself. Doh!!!
I had a novel to write. Moving In. It had been calling me for years.
And I was the postponer. It never got past the first chapter and lots of scribbled wild ideas. Because I couldn’t do it – there was always something more important.
The Moment of Recognition
I was hit twice with this. Once, when I was editing Words From The Wild. There was a moment – like a soggy flannel hitting you in the face. Aha, I thought.
Then again, the realisation hit me like a punch to the chest (that woke me up) when I sat down to do my own ‘Bucket List for Your Soul’ exercise. I’d created this tool to help my students explore what their hearts and souls were actually longing for beneath the surface of what they thought they should want. It is, in fact, one of my favourite exercises.
I was revamping it for The Alchemy Of Becoming and thought I’d better retest it.
So I did what I always tell my students to do: I wrote everything down without filtering. The dreams, stuff, secret longings. All of it. And no, I am not going to share my secret longings.
And there it was. The novel. Again. It surfaced straight away and made it hard to write the other stuff I wanted because it had been and was in my heart. Blimey, I even have a very old private Pinterest board of me accepting awards for my book being turned into a film. My dress is red – not a colour I would normally wear, but it seems appropriate for some reason.
I put my hand on my heart – my own ‘Feel It First’ technique and read the words aloud: ‘Write Moving In.’
The tears came immediately – not sloppy ones but tears nonetheless. That instant physical response that tells you something true is surfacing.
I asked myself the question I ask my clients: ‘Who in me wants this?’
And the answer came, clear and undeniable: ‘The creative child you’ve been silencing. The writer you were before you listened to other people’s crap judgments. The part of you that wants to lose herself in stories without expectation or rules.’
That’s when I knew. This wasn’t a passion project. This was a heart project.
And I’d been betraying it – and myself – for years.
Understanding the Difference
I explored some more so that I could clearly articulate the distinction between passion projects and heart projects, both through my own experience and through working with students and clients:
Passion projects are wonderful. They’re strategic, intentional, exciting. They build your business, your legacy, your impact. You can explain them to others. They make sense. They say, ‘This would be amazing.’
I have plenty of these. This blog is one. My courses. My frameworks. My memoir-as-business-book. All passion projects. All valuable.
Heart projects are different. They’re heart and soul-directed and somewhat terrifying. They won’t leave you alone. They might not make business sense. They don’t need to justify their existence. They say: ‘I have to do this, or I’ll regret it forever.’
The novel was that. Is that.
When I finally owned this truth – that I had been postponing my heart project, that I had been listening to the naysayers (including the one in my own head) – something shifted fundamentally.
I realised I was betraying myself.
What Lies Beneath: The Deeper Meanings
When you dig beneath the surface of what you think you want, you discover what you’re actually longing for.
- I wanted to write a memoir because I needed to tell my story and finally let go of the stories that were shadowing me.
- I wanted to paint to explore my creative side and see what emerges when I don’t judge myself.
- I want to travel solo to open up my adventurous side and explore what is out there beyond the confines of where I live and who I am.
- My business is to be in control, support myself, and share my wisdom as I want to.
- I want to declutter my home because I want to live in a space that reflects who I’m becoming, not who I’ve been.
But even as I wrote these, they didn’t capture how I wanted to feel. When I looked at them again, I saw it clearly: freedom and autonomy.
Freedom from the shadows, from judgment, from confinement, from old identities. Autonomy to tell my story, explore without permission, choose my direction, run things my way, curate my space.
That’s what passion projects gave me. But my novel? That’s different. It’s not just about freedom- it fills a hole in my life, opens a caged heart, and makes me want to cry that I waited so long to stop betraying myself.
This is what makes a heart project different from a passion project. It’s not about achieving something or becoming someone. It’s about claiming the right to move through the world on your own terms – not someday, but now.
And as I often say, if not now, when? That’s what I want for you, too – to point you forward, not backwards into wounds and justification.
What wants to come alive.
My memoir as an example: ‘I needed to tell my story and finally let go of the stories that were shadowing me.’ That’s not about the past – it’s about clearing space for what comes next. The telling IS the letting go. The writing IS the transformation.
Everything is in the becoming. The feeling state that emerges when you’re in alignment with what wants to move through you.
So think about it – the surface desire was ‘write a novel.’ But when I chatted to ‘that’ part of me – she that knows – when I let that part of me speak without censoring, here’s what emerged
‘I’m longing for fun, creative expression that comes from my heart and soul. I’m longing to lose myself in stories and to do what I want without expectation or rules. If I never do it, I have let myself down because I listened to the naysayers.’
That’s not about writing a book. That’s listening to my heart and refusing to let external voices override my internal knowing. That’s a heart project.
Why We Postpone Our Heart Projects
The question I had to ask myself was brutal in its simplicity: Why had I been postponing this for so long?
The answers are a bit obvious:
- It didn’t build my business. I couldn’t put it in a marketing plan. It wouldn’t create leads or generate revenue.
- It felt selfish. I had clients and students who needed me to help them write their books.
- It terrified me. What if I wasn’t good enough? What if years of wanting to write this novel were based on a delusion?
- The naysayers were loud. ‘You don’t have time.’ ‘It’s not practical.’ ‘Focus on what’s working.’ ‘People like us don’t write books like that.’
Every single one of those reasons was a form of self-betrayal. I was making my heart project earn its keep before I’d even begun. I was treating my heart and soul’s longing like it needed to justify its existence. I was prioritising everything else over my own deepest knowing.
The hypocrisy was devastating and liberating.
When Everything Changes
Everything changed when I finally admitted what I desired. I let go of one part of my business and started to focus on the parts that felt joyful and the reason I am on this planet, and internally, there was a seismic shift.
I gave myself permission. Not ‘someday’ permission. Not ‘when things settle down’ permission. Actual, immediate, non-negotiable permission to honour my heart project.
I stopped apologising for it. Stopped explaining it. Stopped trying to make it make business sense. And very soon I will start to write Moving In. And while you can’t see me, every time I write this, I smile.
This is what reclaimed creativity looks like. This is what happens when you stop betraying yourself.
The Invitation
If you’re reading this and something in you is saying yes, pay attention. That’s your heart project trying to speak.
It might be a novel. It might be painting, music, poetry, or a creative pursuit you’ve been dismissing as impractical. It might be something that makes absolutely no business sense, but won’t leave you alone.
Ask yourself:
- What have I been postponing?
- What desire keeps surfacing no matter how much I try to be practical?
- What would I do if I gave myself complete permission to want what I want?
Then do the heart check-in:
- Put your hand on your heart.
- Read that desire aloud.
- Notice what happens in your body.
If tears come, you’ve found it. If something in your body gives you a nudge with yearning, you’ve found it.
And you have a choice: keep betraying it, or start honouring it.
I’m not suggesting you quit your job or blow up your life or make everything about your heart project.
Your passion projects matter because they build your outer world, and they create impact, income and legacy. But your heart projects? They restore the parts of you that got lost when you learned to people-please, perfect and perform.
You need both. I need both.
The business book I’ve written is called Words From The Wild – that’s a passion project. Strategic, intentional, and part of my brand.
The novel I’m finally writing – that’s my heart project. Soul-directed, inevitable, just for me.
See how they can coexist?
The Real Question
The real question isn’t whether you have time for your heart project. You have the same 24 hours you’ve always had.
The real question is: Are you willing to stop betraying yourself?
Because every day you postpone what your soul is asking for is a day you choose the naysayers over your own heart.
And I can tell you from experience: that emptiness you feel? That sense that something’s missing even when you’re achieving? That’s the cost of ignoring your heart project.
I was paying that cost for years and I’m not paying it anymore.
Your Moving In
I don’t know what your Moving In is. But I know you have one. It’s the thing you’ve been carrying, tucked away for years. The thing that won’t leave you alone. The thing that terrifies you because you want it so badly.
Stop postponing it. Stop listening to the naysayers. Start listening to your heart.
When you finally honour your heart project, you don’t just create something new. You reclaim something lost. You come home to yourself, and that changes everything.
Want to discover your own heart project? Join me in The Alchemy Of Becoming or Reclaim Your Wild and start the journey from heart’s desires to heart projects. It’s time to stop betraying yourself and start reclaiming your creative soul.
