When it comes to life my philosophy is simple: Do what you love, love what you do. Figuring this out can take time to learn and grow into actually making it happen though ? easier said than done sometimes as well. But before you can live the life you love you have to learn to speak from the heart. In other words, only your heart can reveal what you really love.

Now when I say your ?heart? I don't mean that muscle that pumps blood in the middle of your chest ? though it's very close. What I mean is that sense of core self that guides, determines and judges everything that happens to you ? that part that knows the deepest truth for you. Most often you might feel that core self right where that muscle sits.

As is only human, many people walk through this world with a veil of fear or uncertainty or hurt covering their lives. Speaking from the heart is about owning what is true for you, not what others want to be true for you or what they want you to do or buy or think, or how past pain prevents you from living and loving. But if you're walking around with this veil, how do you begin to pull it aside? The first step is just identifying its existence.

Write down some short answers to these questions: Who am I? What do I want? What do I believe to be true?

Now look at the answers you've written and turn a critical eye upon them. What do your answers look like? Did you talk about yourself in terms of your job, your social status, your financial success or some other social standard of measurement? Or did you talk about your personality, your desires and your passions? If you talked about the former ask yourself if that's really a relevant and accurate answer to the questions or just the outside perception. If you answered the latter take a moment to check in with yourself and see if maybe there's something beneath those answers that's even more relevant. See if the answers you have show only a piece or the surface for you. Investigate whether there might be something else that drives your initial answers.

By answering these questions and questioning these answers you will begin to discover where your veil exists and tricks you into moving away from your heart. As you continue to question your answers and find deeper levels you will begin to uncover what your heart truly has to say.

But what's the point? Why does it matter if you're speaking from your heart or not? What matters about this is that only when you know what is real and true and clear for you can you actually live with honesty and integrity with your friends and family and truly craft the life you love. Because if you don't know what you love ? you are forever relegated to doing things that, at best, you only like and, at worst, hate.

The reality is, like everyone else you are just stumbling along and making it up as you go. No one has the answer and everyone has questions. Doing what you love and loving what you do is about more than just the job you have or the activities you engage. It extends into the realms of friendship, relationship, family and love. It pervades your interactions, your communications, your emotions and your health.

Speaking from the heart matters because only then can you truly know what you love and how to craft it in every area of your life. Without being able to do that ? the veil will forever be clouding your vision, your life and your soul. Only through speaking from the heart can you stop living and start being alive! That's the point ? to be alive.