Have you answered your deepest calling ??
You must have heard this your whole life : “You are here for a reason. You need to answer your highest & deepest calling. You have a true purpose in life” … & some of the most important questions that you ever ask yourself on your journey through life are questions such as, “Why am I here?” “What do I really, really want in life?” “Where am I going?” “If I achieve all my goals, what would it look like?”
It’s a seductively simple question, which is why it’s so appealing. If we all really do have one true calling, then the secret to getting our dream job is as simple as finding and pursuing that calling… right?
But what if you don’t know what is your calling!! What if you are juggling between multiple tasks and aren’t even sure which one is your true calling?
I find this question very tempting & sometimes like the perfect pair of jeans. You try them enough, and eventually one will fit you exactly right. And so we hop from company to company, job to job, project to project, searching for the one that will finally show us, what is our true purpose in life. Not only is this exhausting; it can leave us feeling even more lost and confused than we were before!
Now let’s think backward & differently. Maybe we aren’t meant to find our callings at all. Maybe our callings are meant to find us. How about that ?
Here is the good news !! If you have no idea what your calling is, means you can give yourself permission to stop searching so hard. It does not mean giving up on the possibility of a purposeful life and career. You’re unlikely to find your calling by looking for it, but there are things you can do to help your calling find its way to you.
Let go of the idea that everyone has “one true calling.”
Some people seem to know from birth what they were meant to do. Most of us don’t, and that’s OK! Callings aren’t an all-or-nothing deal. You may feel different callings at different times in your life. So rather than asking yourself, “What’s my one true calling?”, try asking instead, “What’s calling to me right now?” And see where that leads you.
Do more of what brings you joy.
Joy is a powerful, illuminating, transformative emotion. Whatever brings you joy, do more of it. Find opportunities to cultivate joy at work, at home, in your whole life. I don’t exactly know why, but wherever we experience joy, callings have a way of showing up, too.
Follow your frustration.
What problems do you see vividly that frustrate you? What drives you crazy about the status quo, and what about it do you yearn to transform? Make friends with that frustration. Get curious about it. Follow it. And don’t be surprised if a calling pops up somewhere along the path.
Stay open to what could be.
Callings are funny things. We seek them because we crave meaning and certainty. We want to know why we’re here and what our lives are supposed to be all about, and sometimes we start down a path just to get rid of the agony of limbo. But I don’t know of any calling that showed up fully formed, complete with an action plan and due dates. Callings come to us in hints and traces, steeped in possibility and uncertainty. When possibility presents itself, don’t rush into action right away. Stay open. Let it simmer long enough to show you what could be.
As you contemplate these ideas, I implore you also to remember that callings don’t only show up in our careers. If you feel called to make music or write novels or create art or do any of the other wonderful, worthwhile things that rarely earn a great living in our society, do it!
The starting point of great success is for you to realise that you are truly extraordinary! There has never been anyone in the entire universe just like you. You have remarkable abilities, skills, aptitudes, insights and ideas that make you different, and in some way, superior to all other people who have ever lived. You have the capacity within you, right now, to accomplish more than you have ever dreamed of in the past.
The great tragedy is that most people go through life and die with their music still in them. They react and respond to pressures and events, to parents and to bosses, to bills and responsibilities, and never take the time to sit down and think about what it is that they really want for themselves. What is your “heart’s desire?” Your heart’s desire is defined as the one thing that you and you alone were put on this earth to do. It is that something special that you are uniquely suited to do in an excellent fashion. Your job throughout your life is to discover your heart’s desire. It is only then that you will be truly happy, completely successful and totally fulfilled.
The greater tragedy would be not to follow a calling at all… because you never know where it might lead you.
