Finding Your Calling (part 1)

Does your actions help you to uncover your Life's Purpose?

Life is a challenging thing. One day we are up and on top of the world, the next we are down in the depths of a seemingly bottomless pit that we feel we can't crawl out of. Then we appear, out of the blue, and rise to our feet as we stand up again and say, "I've made it!"

Then only to find that we have fallen back down.

So the cycle repeats.

Somewhere in all of this we also interact with our friends and family . . . and some not so friendly encounters. All of which is meant for us to grow.

Whew . . .

Have you ever stopped and thought, "what am I doing?" or "I feel like I am getting nowhere". Well, I know I have.

I want to share something with you, if only to highlight the point of this article.

Just over a year ago I left a good job to try and pursue a course that was meant to be better for my family and greater financial independence. Now, this job, mind you, I had for more than six years and I enjoyed it. But I felt I needed to be doing more.

I wanted to feel like I was having a positive impact on the people that I love most, mainly my wife and child. I also wanted to see if I could find my Life's Purpose. All of which is very important to me.

So anyway, as you can imagine Life did not go the way I was hoping it would go. I have not been able to bring the financial stability that I was longing for, nor have I felt like I really have done better for my family. Instead, we continue to struggle and I keep thinking that I am so far from discovering my Life's Purpose that it's not even funny.

Then, just recently I had a thought. How do we know what kind of impact we have on the people that we reach out to, or interact with? That can be very difficult for us to judge.

How do you know if, for example, you let a car enter traffic in front of you on a crowded street or rush hour, someone else behind you sees that and they feel good at witnessing what you've done. So much so they are inspired to help someone themselves.

This has to be a powerful thought . . .

In business there is a rule called the "3/7 rule". It states for every positive thing you do three people will say good things about you and for every negative thing you do seven people will say bad things about you. Well I happen to believe that this applies to everything we do. Now I know no one is perfect but think about it.

If we always strive to do positive things then we know we are having a definite impact on the people that we reach out to in one form or another.

Of course it can work the other way too.

We know by this rule that if we do (or speak) negative things then people will say disapproving things about us too.

I don't know if you noticed but it takes longer for a good reputation to build than a bad one. Having said that how do we know what we are doing is positive or negative? Wow, that's a confusing thought.

Of course in business there are definite guidelines for all of us to work under, so it is easier to know when we have done something right and when we have messed up.

But Life isn't that easy. What we think of as something good, someone else might think that it was bad. For example, let say that I let in that car in front of me because I saw a big line of vehicles behind me and I thought there was no way this poor guy was ever getting in. That was a nice thing to do, I hear you say.

But what if just as he pulled into traffic his car stalled and in order to help him out, I got out of my vehicle and helped him over to the side of the road . . .

Well okay, that's good you are at least responding right away and not just sitting in your car waiting for someone else to come along and help . . .

You think it was nice but you added a little more thought, which might suggest that you have patience.

Now imagine that you are running late for work. How would you sound then? Would you say something like . . . I can't believe that idiot let that guy in? If he had just left him there his car might have stalled at the side of the road and I wouldn't be that late, now I have no idea when I'm going to get to work.

So, does this mean that positive and negative depends greatly on your point of view? Certainly there are some things that we would all agree on are good and bad. This would have a lot to do with our moral compass. That is not what I am trying to get at.

I think perception does have to be taken into consideration. At the same time we as individuals don't have to worry about what everyone else is thinking. There is just no way that would be even practical, or possible.

The only thing for us to consider is what kind of impact or impression we leave on the people we come in contact with. Clearly we can't second-guess ourselves . . . if we thought of everything that we were doing whether or not it was leaving a negative impact on someone, I think that would drive us crazy. It would drive me crazy.

Okay, all this time I've been hinting at reputation but is it really that important? When what should really matter is just simply putting our best foot forward. So, in light of that and getting back to the exploration of the question at hand . . . does your actions help you to uncover your Life's Purpose?

I think the motivation of the question has a lot to do with our journey in Life. We come here for many reasons, but there usually are just a few (or even one or two) main motivations for us coming back.

(At this point I should put in a disclaimer and an apology. I know that what I'm about to say may not work with your beliefs - they simply are my opinions that happen to work well for this article. If you don't believe in what I am about to say, then I'm sorry. I only ask that you keep your mind open and if you don't accept some of the things I say then don't listen to it. Remember, use your sound judgement, everyone is different and I am in no way trying to persuade you to change your faith in anyway.)

I think that if we notice what kind of impact we make, then the more we discover our Life's Purpose. I firmly believe that the more we follow the path that we were meant to pursue the greater our impression we leave on the world. Since we all have a course that we all are meant to be on, the question that I am asking here becomes more and more valuable.

But the next obvious question is how do you know what is your calling?

(I don't want to spend any time on this because I intend to in my next article.)

At any rate, the first thing that is important here is to realize that the more of an imprint we leave, the more successful our life has been. The more we can move forward in our next life (and so the cycle repeats until one day when we find ourselves going Home).

But with Life the way it is, how many of us really spend that much time thinking about it? How many of us worry or think about our next life? I know I don't.

I will say this about our Life's Purpose . . . when you feel like you are on the Path the more you feel like you are really moving forward. At least in this life.

I mean you can really feel a sense of purpose a joy at doing what you actually love to do.

This becomes the point. To say we understand that everything we do is significant, everything we do is meaningful is an understatement. That becomes the importance of this quest. It truly is incredible to think that the smallest of things often are the most worthwhile.

I have to ask, though: How can we possibly figure out our Life's Purpose if all we are doing is just simply performing in our life and nothing more?

How can we go from: waking up, going to our job, coming home and getting ready for bed to discovering our Life's Purpose from that?

It is no wonder that we have such a hard time with figuring this out. There has to be a way to help us along, so we can discover what we were meant to do.

I think it has something to do with where we have the least resistance in our life. This is where it becomes important to act. Because we could talk or think until the cows come home but if we never actually work on what we know or what we think we know, then we will never truly understand what we can or cannot do.

This is what is important to the ones we love most. In fact, I would hazard a guess that the whole question is based around the ones we love.

And so it is, when I first asked this inquiry, I had no idea that this article would come out. Indeed, perhaps I am just beginning to understand what is meant by the examination. I hope I have at least sparked thought in your mind as to the question: Does your actions help you to uncover your Life's Purpose?

Only time will tell.