Like many people, I fell a bit in love with Elizabeth Gilbert when Eat, Pray, Love came out. Her delightful, touching memoir about chasing after – well, her life – connected with my own soul on many levels (especially the traveling, the eating, the roaming around Italy, the beaches…).

I had hoped for a repeat with her book Big Magic. And I liked it, for sure. But I liked it more in pieces. Bits here and there seemed to jump out of the piece and strike me to my soul, while other parts were merely…words on a page.

Which is actually fine. I am grateful for the bits and pieces that connected with me. But I’m even more grateful for the experience of reading the book because it led me to her podcast: Magic Lessons.

Now, I am way late to this game. Magic Lessons, which has two seasons, came out in 2015. I’m not quite sure how I missed it, but I’m actually glad I did. I listened to the first season about six months ago. Started the first ten minutes of the second season and then, for some reason, put it away.

Until this morning.

After a couple of busts in the morning motivation efforts, I was scrolling through my phone as I got on the treadmill and had the thought – “You should try out Magic Lessons again.”

So I did.

I just opened the app and started where I left off. And instantly felt my soul connect.

If you’re not familiat with Magic Lessons, the basic premise is that Gilbert reaches out to one of her fans who is in the middle of a creative block and has a chat. About their dreams. Their hopes. Their creative pursuits. She gives them some advice and some homework, and then she calls up one of her famous creative friends and gets their take on the situation.

As you can imagine, there’s all sorts of creative gold to be mined.

In this particular episode – number 201 – she is talking with a woman named Jo. Jo has always wanted to be a comedy writer. But after an unfortunate encounter with a high school guidance counselor, she ended up getting multiple degrees (I’m talking PhD) in….the Holocaust.

This woman who dreams of making people laugh spends her day collecting stories about genocide.

Is that a worthy cause? Of course it is. But it isn’t what she dreams of doing. And it has, in fact, started to make her physically sick.

As they were talking, Gilbert threw down a bunch of wisdom, but the one that stuck with me the most was this:

The world will best be served when I am doing the work that brings me to life and that illuminates me.

Isn’t that a beautiful thought?

When we do the work we feel called to do, we are energized. We are excited. We are full of hope and vigor – and light. And no matter what that work is – whether it is writing, or drawing, or medicine, or disaster relief, or collecting Holocaust stories – we do it in a way that benefits the world the most.

But when we are doing other work – work we feel we “should” do or feel badgered into doing or resigned to doing – whether that is writing, or drawing, or medicine, or disaster relief, or collecting Holocaust stories – then we are draining the very people we are hoping to serve. And, often, we just make the situation worse.

It was a giant permission slip. Permission to go after your dreams. Permission to do what you feel compelled to do inside, no matter if other people think it’s “valid” or “worthy.” Because only when you are doing what illuminates you, can you illuminate the world.