The Power of Perseverance Through Your Soul’s Purpose with Will Evans : Episode 297

Hi sister! Welcome back to another episode of a Taylored Adventure to Happiness. If you are new, welcome! If you are a regular, you know I love you!

Have you ever seen a performer who’s just lost in the moment, fully engaged in what they’re doing? It’s incredible to watch someone living out their purpose so fully that you can see how they’re dropping into the zone. As they’re dropping in, you’re feeling it too; you’re connecting to them at the heart level. Those are the kinds of performances that speak to your soul.

Today’s guest is a performer who lights my soul up. I was so excited to talk with Will Evans in this episode. I love his music. It’s soulful, powerful, and deeply healing. It’s vibrational medicine, delivered through the medium of this amazing, artistic, and creative soul. 

In this episode, you’re going to learn about his story and how to live out your soul’s purpose to the fullest. Let’s get started!

Who Is Will Evans?

Will is a conscious roots musician and environmentalist with a passion for creating soulful music through guitar, vocals, hand pans, and the didgeridoo, among other instruments. The former frontman for Barefoot Truth, Will has released three full-length solo albums and has toured the country multiple times to sold-out shows. His album Rise was nominated for three awards in his native New England. 

As a lifelong surfer and earth steward, Will’s music touches on environmental activism and the power of connecting to nature. He also speaks to themes of hope, healing, community, and inclusion. He’s an inspiring artist who’s shared the stage with giants like Michael Franti & Spearhead, Crosby & Nash, and Railroad Earth.

Embracing Your Soul’s Purpose

Do you choose your life’s purpose, or does it choose you? I can’t definitively tell you the answer, but Will seems to have been drawn towards his purpose the way many others are. He felt immediate wonder and passion for music from the moment they met. His parents had brought him to Baptist church and choir as a kid. While he wasn’t interested in the church itself, he stayed for the music.

Sound touched him with its healing power, its vibrational medicine, and with the lessons it taught him. He described being amazed at how when he would sing one note and everyone else sang other notes, they created a beautiful harmony. He saw this idea of harmony as a metaphor for life and for people who all express different notes.

Once Will went down this path, he did so in his own unique way. He’s a true creative who instinctively knew which approach worked best for him as an artist.

“I really like the liberation of having no constraints. … I have a lot of friends who have gone through music school and are incredible musicians, and they have a really hard time writing original music because they’ve been so well trained. [They’re like] ‘Well, if I do that, that’s just E equals MC squared.’ They know why that works, whereas I’m so naive to it. It’s like this beautiful naivete. If it sounds good, if it fits the moment, then I just let it go.” – Will Evans

What’s your life purpose? I see people struggling to figure it out, but it’s actually simple. Your life purpose is indicated by your natural talents, passions, and interests. Isn’t that amazing? You’re here to do what you love to do! You’re here to do what you’re passionate about. That’s not to say that you should quit your job right now. Your life purpose doesn’t have to be your career, but it can be a part of it. The important thing is that you start incorporating it into your everyday routine in any way that you can. And you can have more than one purpose!

Just remember to be clear about what your purpose is versus what you think is good for you or what is expected of you. A good indication of whether you’re engaging in your soul’s purpose or not is to ask yourself what lights you up. Your life purpose will always push you, and it will always draw you to your edge. But it won’t feel like drudgery, and it definitely won’t be boring.

Taking the Road Less Traveled

Persevering through your soul’s purpose is not the norm. If you’re going to actively, passionately go after your dreams, be prepared to meet external and internal resistance. Be prepared to be your own leader and your own light. Be prepared to do things differently. 

Like many others, Will wasn’t always able to make music the center of his life. It’s no surprise that Artist and Musician aren’t always the most accepted careers to have. Will tried to force himself into more acceptable and stable career paths, but he rarely stayed long. 

“Every time I would … come to a crossroads and try to go [in]to a more traditional job or something, I would fail miserably and come back to my music. … I stopped fighting it eventually. I just stayed the course, and the music’s always been there.” – Will Evans

Music chose Will, and when Will strayed too far and for too long, he was always brought right back. He read the signs. He stopped resisting. Where are you resisting things? Are there any signs you’re missing when it comes to following your life’s purpose?

Just think of it like this. Let’s say you take a certain bus to work every day and one day, the bus stops coming. It’s really annoying at first, but you might consider, “Is the universe pushing me in the direction of looking for a new position?” Of course, do this within reason. Not everything is a sign, but when you notice repeating patterns, it’s a good indication that it is.

The thing is, you can’t just shut down parts of you that are you. If you’re a healer, you go through the world with a healer vibe. You feel other people’s energies, people are drawn to you, and you’re more sensitive. You can manage it, but you can’t turn it off. The same goes for any life purpose. If you’re a passionate leader with bold ideas, you can’t switch it off. You can’t be a drone worker bee with no innovation. 

“I like to kind of be a conduit for whatever’s coming through, and you can’t just shut that tap off once it’s kicking. You just have to let it come through. It’s amazing, some of the …  music, the songs, the lessons that have helped me by [my] just being open to it.” – Will Evans

Even as a musician, Will took a less-traveled path. He didn’t study music as most other musicians do. His journey adapted according to how he felt. That was a great process for Will since it allowed him to make music genuinely without the barriers of rigid structure or pressure of conformity. 

“I did try some more structured lessons and [classes on] music theory and stuff like that. … I just couldn’t [stay with it.]  As soon as somebody tried to make music, [tried to do the] math for me, I lost interest. I think it’s just [a matter of] left brain and right brain, where I’m completely on the creative side. Anytime somebody tries to show me why this makes sense. I don’t want anything to do with it. I just have to hear it. [Sometimes] fans of my music will reach out and ask for tabs for songs I’ve written or whatever, and I’ll [think] ‘Yeah, if you can figure it out, please send it to me.’” – Will Evans 

Will didn’t get a certificate or a shiny diploma to show off his skills — how many of us feel we need to do that to succeed? We box ourselves in, thinking we need all these things in order to do what we’re good at. While some professions do need very specific formal study, a lot do not. Don’t be afraid to throw out the box of how things have always been done. I asked Will what he thinks keeps people from doing so, and I loved his answer: 

“It’s often the easier way out to just kind of fall back on something that’s more structured [and] more traditional. … My wife was … a physical therapist assistant, and she got furloughed [in] the first month of COVID. And since then, she’s started seeing people in our garage. We turned it into a little PT clinic, and once the clinic opened back up again, she was seeing so many people that she decided not to go back. [She] has her own little home business now. … That never would have happened had she not gone for it.“ – Will Evans

Sister, let go of how you think things should look. Let go of the well-worn, well-traveled path. 

Riding Waves of Imperfection

We’re always evolving and ascending, and the learning never ends. So even if you’re on the exciting journey of following your soul’s purpose, you’re going to have peaks and valleys. It won’t always flow, and your flaws and challenges won’t fade away. Will shared his method for dealing with this struggle:

“I have a tendency to be a perfectionist, and I get really anxious about … making my music. I have this vision that is often unrealistic, [and] instead of just letting it unfold naturally, I try to force things. [But] rather than get upset at myself for [having] those flaws or those faults … I just witness them and let them float down the river and just accept [them]. … It’s okay to forgive yourself for having them. … [Then] move on. … [It’s important to have] grit [and have] the tenacity to just fall forward. … We’re gonna fall through life, but just keep falling forward.” –  Will Evans

It’s incredible — the resistance is really the problem, more than the flaw on its own. Meaning, you might have the same issue over and over again. There’s nothing wrong with that unless you continue to fight it. When you just accept it, you can let it go more quickly. When you resist, you give it more power. Let go. 

We’re not ever going to be perfect. But as Will said, we just need to keep going. So what do you do when you’ve been trying to live out your purpose and it hasn’t been working? What if you’ve been at it for years, and you’re getting burnt out. What then? 

“Don’t ever be too proud to pivot. … Know that you can still honor that path, honor that journey, without beating it to the ground … [without] crushing your soul’s purpose. … Like I’ve always just wanted to be a famous musician … at a level where I didn’t have to do anything else. [Where] I could just work on my craft. … Guess what, I’m still not there. … I’m still doing the side hustles … But it’s this humble hustle that I think really has made me feel like the message, the music, is authentic because it’s coming from a real place.” – Will Evans

This is so true! We’re looking at ways to pursue passion through flow, not force. How can we persevere while also being flexible? How can we tap into the energy of the divine feminine? The divine masculine is linear, it follows a straight path, and it sometimes tries to force its way forward. It’s the energy of ticking all the boxes off on a to-do list. The divine feminine follows a spiral path. It allows for surrender and flexibility and being receptive. It’s a dance between what we desire and what the universe is presenting to us. Through this flow, we learn to surf the waves and to flow with divine timing.

“I think if [you] reprogram what [you] think of as success, … you might find that you’re not on the edge of defeat at all. You’ve done most of the things you wanted to. So it’s just a mindset of reprogramming, [of] thinking, ‘Ok, what’s next? What’s my next realistic step here? And … how do I pivot? How do I pivot to make that happen?’ And then you just keep going. It’s not a straight road ever. There’s lots of winding and turns and twists. So make sure you’ve got four-wheel drive.” – Will Evans

I’m so on board with that! Never be afraid to pivot, especially when you feel like your life is standing still. 

Are You Ready to Find Your Soul’s Purpose? 

Sister, you are meant to keep growing, evolving into your highest self — don’t be afraid to let go! I hope you enjoyed today’s episode and loved hearing Will’s wisdom as much as I did! 

If you want to hear Will’s amazing music, check out his website, follow him on Insta at @willevansmusic, and check him out on Spotify. 

Don’t forget to screenshot the episode and tag Will, @willevansmusic, and me, @iamtaylorsimpson, on Instagram with a screenshot of the episode and your greatest takeaways! 

I love you. I see you. Cheers to persevering towards your soul’s calling in the way that is most joyful and purposeful for you. And remember — always choose happiness because, well, why the fuck not?