How to Discover Your Life’s True Calling

Have you discovered your true calling yet? Your true calling is the reason you're alive. It’s your personal mission in life. 

If you don't know what I'm talking about, let's take a quick pop quiz. 

1. Are you doing precisely the kind of work that makes you want to jump out of bed every morning, excited to begin a new day? 
2. Does your work fulfil a deep need inside you to express yourself, your talents, your values, and your unique gifts? 
3. Does your work allow a balanced life? One that leaves you time for your family, friends, physical activity, self-care, and hobbies?
4. Are you doing what you love? 

If you answered YES to all these questions… congratulations, my friend! There's a good chance that you've achieved what the Buddhists call “right livelihood.” 

If you haven't yet found the work that you're meant to do, that you're called to do, then pay attention. 

This episode of The Empowerment L.A.B. is for you. In this episode, I'm going to offer you some hints and tips on how to find your true calling. 

I'm telling you from experience, that when you find the calling that is uniquely yours—your life will be transformed. 

The stress and uncertainty of living in the COVID-19 pandemic have led many of my clients and friends to question their purpose.

Many of them have built traditionally successful careers in law, public health, and healthcare. But, They’re doubting if they’re living their life’s true calling.

Now, many of them have pursued a career or job transition. They’re taking the initiative to start their own:

• Coaching company
• Consulting practice
• Law firm
• Podcast
• Storefront
• Salon

Some people have simply decided to quit their jobs yet are determined to figure out their next steps along the way. Many people are viewing this time as an opportunity to reinvent themselves. 

While this is not exciting for most employers, almost half of small business owners surveyed said that they have job openings that they can't fill. 

But, it's hard to stop the momentum of our decisions placing us on our true paths.

We have an opportunity to move away from conventional thinking, social constructs, and programming. Instead of someone else telling us who we are and what our lives should look like, we’re creating a life that works for us.

• Maybe you think it's too late. 
• Maybe you think that you've missed your calling.
• Maybe you think that you're not getting any younger. 

Well, I call BS. Reframe that thinking. Your life's experiences have given you gifts and education. You don't have any more time to waste.

When you discover your true calling, you'll find that your life will start taking you in unexpected directions. Unexpected opportunities will flow to you. 

Far too often, we accept and stay in jobs that fail to feed our spirits. Your happiness suffers when your spirit is starved for meaningful, satisfying work. 

Sure, there will be bad days. But if you’re consistently unhappy, do you feel like you are truly successful? Individuals who love what they do live longer. 

So, here's the million-dollar question: do you believe that you were put here on this planet to follow a calling that is uniquely yours? 

If so, then you’ve got two options.

Option #1

You can keep plotting day after day, week after week, hoping that inspiration will somehow, someway, suddenly show up and strike. 

And in a flash, your true calling will be revealed. 

Option #2

You can make a promise to yourself, right here and right now, to take the first bold step on behalf of your calling. On behalf of your dreams, desires, and your future self. If you ever feel, 

• Confused and pulled in different directions all at one time
• Frustrated that you can't figure out what your calling might be
• Struggling to determine what you're interested in
• Hopeless that it could all fit together in a practical way

… you're not alone. The great news is that it does all fit together because YOU fit together. Your experiences, education, background, struggles, challenges, strengths, and so-called “flaws” gives you your edge.

You wouldn't be the person that you are without all the fabulous, unique, messy parts that come together into the delightfully, complete human being you are.

You were designed this way. You have a purpose. Your soul signed up for the challenges and the opportunities you're experiencing. You manifested them. 

It can feel confusing and frustrating until you finally get clarity around what that plan looks like in real life. To better understand your soul's master plan, here are 9 quick tips to help you find your true calling.

Tip #1. Pay close attention to your deepest, most secret, inner longings. 

They are the voice of your soul calling you to the exact right place where you belong. It's our limiting beliefs that prevent us from getting there. 

Do you dream of being on stage? Writing a bestselling novel? Writing a screenplay and producing a film? Do you want to change the way people think about their spirituality? 

Pay attention to these inner longings. 

If you hear it and feel it, but you aren't acting on it, you might be fooling everyone around you – but you aren’t fooling yourself. 

You're out of alignment and your soul knows it. You wouldn't have these desires in your heart if you weren’t called to pursue them. If you're called to it, it's part of your purpose. 

Tip #2. Start tracking your challenges and struggles. 

Our natural tendency is to bury our deepest challenges and struggles. But the goal here is to unravel common threads of your past. 

Your hardest challenges are your greatest instructors. They show you where you need to heal and how you can grow. 

Of your past challenges that you've overcome, you can see where you’ve healed and how you’ve grown. As you overcome these challenges, you discover more about who you're meant to be. These are clues that tell you what you,

• Need to work on yourself
• What you should teach others
• How you can coach people
• Should choose to master in life

Tip #3. Build your relationship with your Creator. 

This is how you find your Higher Self. When you pay attention to those yearnings and longings, ask your Creator for guidance to guide your steps. 

If you meditate, you want to focus on what your Highest Self is telling you. 

She embodies who you are, even if you don’t yet consciously grasp the enormity of your capacity and brilliance. Strengthening your relationship with your Creator and with your Higher Self will strengthen the brilliance inside you.

Tip #4. Journal, journal, journal, journal. 

Start by making a list of what is most important to you. Ask yourself what you value and what is most significant to you. Is it your family, religious faith, spirituality, or financial security? 

If you work in public health, public health law, or policy which do you believe is most significant? Health equity, advancing data science, legal epidemiology, or improving health literacy? 

Ask yourself what you want to be remembered for in life. Journal on that. The things that are significant to you are your true priorities, and they will guide your search for your true calling.

Tip #5. Keep journaling! 

Write a list of what you enjoy doing, why you find joy in them, and how your strengths help you accomplish them well. Now, look for the overlaps.

Your true calling fits in those concentric circles.

Once you have that answer, then ask yourself: what am I willing to learn?

Tip #6. Ask other people.

Ask people who know you well, what they think you might be called to do. Ask them what they think your strengths are in life. You need to hear their opinion.

However, their opinion is not the final word. Carefully consider external input. It's your calling, not a conference call.

Tip #7. Take assessments and get to know yourself. 

Take a personality assessment or a career aptitude test. See what the results are and how they align with where you feel you’re being called. 

My two favorite assessments I use in my 1:1 coaching are the Motivational DNA and 16 Personalities tests.

Tip #8. Consider multiple chances of finding and living out your true calling. 

A true calling looks different for everyone. It could be any of the following,

• Volunteering
• Working a 9-5 job
• Starting a side hustle
• Pursuing an entrepreneurial venture
• Caring for your family
• Watching over your animals

Don’t base your true calling on the identity of someone else’s calling.

Tip #9. Don't be afraid to try something new. 

Finding your true calling involves trial and error. Take a chance. Launch into something that you suspect might be your true calling. Why not? 

Trust your gut. Follow your curiosity. Take inspired action. 

If the last thought on your mind before you go to bed, have you questioning who you are and what you want out of life, join us in the Your Career Owned Collective. This is the ultimate coaching membership to grow your mindset, career, voice, and bank account. 

From pivoting to personal branding, life lessons to life design principles—we cover it all in The Collective. We know you can't wait for someone else to magically create the life, career, or business that aligns with your desires. 

You must discover your true calling. You must own it. 

As you embark on this process, don’t forget that discovering your true calling takes time. It takes effort, investment, and a calculated risk into yourself.

Why should you take the jump? Because you’re worth it.

Apply these nine tips to start discovering your true calling and access your dream life. You owe it to yourself to live out your full potential.

Read these tips again. Water time. Cultivate them. Make space for your true calling to blossom. And remember, as always, anywhere you are called or aspire to be, you belong.