I remember the first time I heard someone ask the question Who were you before the world told you who to be? I’ve been obsessed with finding her ever since.
I look at my 7 week old daughter and pray I can be the type of mom who encourages her to be true to herself. To follow her curiosities as they arrive to discover what she loves. Don’t ever let the world tell her who to be.
Or is that an inevitability?
It’s not like you’re ceremoniously requested to follow a path that is not your own. Instead it’s like weight gain, it slowly creeps into you when you’re looking the other way. You’ve got to be intensely focused on it, both weight and your calling, to not be struck with something you don’t want.
For a long time I was so intent on finding the purpose of life. This was mostly during my depressed years, and I felt as though there was no purpose. Get up (before I was finished sleeping), get ready for work (half asleep), drive to work (ugh, so much traffic), work (unfulfilling), drive home (back in traffic), decompress from work (not much energy left), go to bed and do it all again. That’s not a life. That can’t be a purpose. There’s definitely no passion in it.. What’s even the point?
That led to my journey of self discovery when I left corporate America in search of purpose and finding what I was passionate about. Spoiler alert, I still don’t have the answer. But I do feel closer to finding it.
It may even be this blog.
After speaking with an intuitive life coach, I made a realization. She put it in a way that finally clicked for me.
Your purpose is to discover your passion and use it in service to others.
While on one hand I did hope she was going to be the one to ceremoniously hand me the purpose, written in straight forward exact detail, hidden somewhere in the depths of my soul. As though she could just reach in and pull it out for me.
But when she said that, it finally made sense to me. Somehow I thought the purpose of life was going to be something so monumental, like solving world hunger. But we only have to figure out what we are passionate about? Maybe this is more doable.
Here are some questions to helping you discover your calling.
- What would you do if fear and money were not a factor?
- Is there a problem in the world that gets you so fired up that you feel you have to do something?
- What do you do that makes you lose all sense of time?
Write it all down! Then take these steps, outlined by Marie Forleo:
- Frame your dream: we can’t become what we don’t envision. Write down your dream. Make a vision board!
- Filter opinions and fend off negativity. Many come from well-meaning sources, but this is YOUR dream. Don’t listen to someone who hasn’t already been where you want to go. Marie used the example of climbing Mt. Everest. You wouldn’t take advice from someone who hasn’t done it before.
- Flood yourself with positive examples: they are everywhere if you start to look for them!
- Fast forward: work backwards from your goal to create steps to get you there.
- Take action!
Dreaming will not change your life unless you take action! I hope this helps you on the road to discovering your calling.
As for me, writing is what makes me lose track of time. Sometimes self sabotage sets in and I don’t think I have anything worth saying. Sometimes you start something, as I have with this blog, and then when you are on a good path you do something to blow it. That’s a whole other blog post.
I would love for you to take this journey with me to discovering, and more importantly fulfilling, our life’s calling!
Have you discovered YOUR calling?
