Our inner voice tells us that we have a deep purpose in this lifetime. We can also sense that when we align with that purpose, we will be living our full passion. Paralleling with your purpose may seem elusive, but it need not be if you follow the strategies below. These strategies require focus and the intention to commit, as well as the desire to eliminate false ideas that may have prevented you from pursuing your passion.
How can you find your true calling?
1. Follow your curiosity.
Curiosity is our inner fuel that continually directs us towards aligning with our purpose. Think about how you were likely taught to read and learn. Did you typically get to choose your books? Did you get excited to learn because the topics were fascinating to you? Many people find that they can more easily absorb material that is interesting to them than material that they find dull, yet standard education does not necessarily encourage us to pursue what interests us. This example demonstrates just one way society indicates that following your curiosity is not a priority. We are also bombarded with overt and subtle messages about “life being hard,” as well as the importance of responsibility. These messages do not embolden you to follow your interests and your desires.
Although society largely dissuades us from following this powerful source by encouraging external focus, we can intentionally reactivate following curiosity as a priority any time we choose. Try this exercise to stimulate your knowledge of your passions:
Set aside an hour to visit a bookstore (or a library, if you prefer). During that hour, let go of any agenda, turn off your cell phone, and focus only on this exercise. Follow the pulls and pushes that you feel. Which section is drawing you in? Which books are appealing? Which areas of the store seem dull or even invisible? Follow your urges and pay attention to the sections and the books that make you happy. Spend as much or as little time as you’d like in any area.
After the hour, sit at the café (or at a table in the library) and record your experiences. Did you notice any clusters of interests that you had been ignoring? Did you find any old passions stirring? This exercise of simply following your curiosity in a place with limitless information can help you reveal your core passions.
2. Develop your self-love, the foundation for ALL success.
Although self-love is a lifelong pursuit, we can accelerate the process any time we intend to by removing the baggage with which we have been saddled. For example, in many of my seminars, we use my “Personal Identity” tool that allows participants to identify the influences that others have had on their choices. You can begin to comprehend how much of your day-to-day life has been influenced by the expectations, false ideas, and limiting ideas of others simply by jotting down who and what influenced you, both positively and negatively. How have these influencers affected your choices today in your relationships, career, education, exercise, diet, material possessions, attitude, and feelings of worthiness? And of those choices, which make you happy and which make you unhappy?
After you examine these influences, you can strip away the arbitrary factors which are not contributing to your happiness. To do so, create your own SUCCESS CHECKLIST, with success being defined by what makes you personally happy. Write down details about what you want and how you want to live. This list can be your guiding influence from now on. This list is the one that will allow you to parallel with your true calling.
As a further, meaningful step, read BEGIN HERE: SELF-LOVE - THE FOUNDATION FOR ALL SUCCESS.
3. Make a detailed, thorough list of the things you are good at and things you love to do.
The items on the list do not necessarily have to connect with ways you believe you can earn money; ultimately, our calling is connected to our interests. Creating this list over days or weeks helps you to uncover all the big and little things that make your heart sing.
Allow yourself to believe that the pursuit of items on this list is good for you. Contrary to how you may have been taught that focusing on yourself is indulgent, realize that the path to all success begins with a happy you. Give yourself permission to be happy in your focus.
You’ve probably heard the expression, “Follow your passion and the money will follow.” If you think of money as abundance, then you can see that following your passion means abundance will follow. Being passionate in your pursuits changes your energy in areas beyond material abundance; your natural enthusiasm and optimism will rise, creating beneficial shifts in your relationships with other people and with your own body’s healthfulness.
4. Develop your intuition.
Although our left brain is a wonderful tool for navigating day-to-day life, if we depend solely on logic, reasoning, facts, and linear thinking, we will not open up to our limitlessness. Intuition (or as I describe it, "the conduit to valuable information beyond earthbound sources"), connects us with creativity, imagination, inspiration, love, freedom, and a feeling of self-empowerment. Many people can recognize their connection to intuition through a gut feeling or a “pop” of an idea. If you cannot find a thread of thinking that leads to an idea popping into your head, it is likely intuition calling. Jot down these good ideas and gut feelings. Over time, you may find that these pops provide a map to your soul’s intention.
5. Believe.
By far, the most important factor in attaining any goal is believing that it's possible! That may sound simple in theory, but believing that you can find your calling and live it means you may need to overturn some diehard limiting beliefs that you picked up along the way. You can spend years analyzing why you may not yet be following your passion, but just as effective and far more expeditious is to change the behaviors and self-talk that allow limiting beliefs to remain.
To alter any non-productive beliefs which are preventing you from living your dreams, try one or several of the following techniques:
- Listen to your self-talk. When you hear something negative, turn the sentence around and state the opposite. Over the next few days, keep stating the new message throughout the day until it resonates. For example, “I’ll never be able to find a job I love,” can become, “I’m grateful for my jobs up until this point because I know they are preparing me for the job I will love.”
- Avoid naysayers. Many people will try to shoot down your beliefs. They, perhaps, are jealous or simply living life small instead of large. Just because they draw boundaries around their happiness, doesn’t mean that you have to imitate. Be bold. You are here to live fully.
- Elicit a support buddy. Find someone with whom you can share goals and encourage one another. Never underestimate the power of having your own personal cheerleader.
As you are focusing on finding your true calling, take time to realize all the ways in your day-to-day experiences that you are living your intention. Just because you may have yet to reach the grandest expression of your inner purpose, does not minimize the positive ripples you put into the waters of humanity every day. Yes, you may put more resources and dedication to your goals at some point, but your influence matters every day along the way as well.
