First, drop the fantasy. If you haven't spent your entire life obsessing over your one true passion then chances are this isn't going to start now.
A girl in the neighborhood next to mine growing up wanted to study dinosaurs when she was 10. Today she is a paleontologist. She is the exception, not the rule. This type of clarity is not what finding your purpose looks like for most people. Those who avoid exploring new things because they don't yet have this level of consistent passionate interest are going to spend their entire lives working jobs that they hate. I don't even know if she enjoys studying dinosaurs after all these years. I just know she did it. For the rest of us, the voices that guide us are quieter and less consistent; until we cultivate them.
When you look at a ladder do you try to figure out how to get your feet directly onto the top rung? Do you say, "Well, I can't jump up six feet to the top, so I guess I'm not meant to leave the ground. I better settle for my current situation."
That sounds absurd, but, as a life and career coach, it is exactly the logic that I hear people use when they talk about leaving their current career or school and attempting to find their one true calling. Over and over again we can discuss moves that would be a step in the right direction, but they will rationalize not taking that next step because they suspect that it is not where they will want to be in 5 or 10 years. "Sure, I could leave marketing to be a social worker, but what if I don't enjoy it in 5 years?" Until they feel certain that they have found something that will carry their passion for life they are hesitant to invest themselves in something that would simply be better.
You don't find a job that makes you excited to wake up in the morning without a bit of exploration. Let me be entirely honest, the pursuit of a career that feels deeply aligned with your heart is a commitment to a life of exploration. Even if you find the absolutely perfect title for who you are at this moment in time, guess what, you are going to change! Just the experience of working at that job will change you. The more closely aligned with your sense of purpose a job is the more it challenges you and, therefore, the more it changes you. Growing out of something is not a sign of a wrong step, but a right one!
As I was leaving the security industry I became a holistic health coach. That was one pivot, or rung, on my ladder of purpose (more on that here). Over time, with experience, it became obvious to me that the number one factor in people's health was not their knowledge of food or their exercise plan, it was their will power. Know what consumes an immense amount of our will power and therefore our ability to make healthy choices? Going to a job we hate all day long. I saw people making bad choices at dinner not because they didn't know better, but simply because all of their strength was being used up getting out of bed and showing up to work a job that they didn't believe in. Clients came to me to talk about their health, and I was telling them to change their career. And when they did, it worked! They naturally lost weight and had more energy. So I decided to pivot again. I took a sabbatical and when I returned I launched a new company with a new website, a new mission, and a newfound ability to help others. I hadn't failed at being a health coach, I had succeed to the point that I was ready for the next step. I shifted my focus and become a life and career coach.
Your purpose will change. I tend to think of purpose in two ways. I think of the essence of your purpose and the many forms that it will have. The essence of my purpose is to help other people be more conscious about the decisions that they are making in their lives. Writing this article is one form. Being a Life & Career Coach is another form. Being a security consultant was actually one, fairly misguided, form. The more integrity I live with the more every moment of my day becomes a form of my purpose. The essence is unlikely to shift much, if at all, but the forms will be varied and many. More importantly, when we look at our career, the forms that your purpose takes are meant to evolve, grow, change and reach completion.
The point of finding one form of your purpose in your career is to do it until it feels done. It is perfectly healthy and natural for the thing that woke you up excited last year to feel a bit bland in five years time. This is a sign that you have succeeded in choosing a path, not failed. You are now ready for the next step. Blake Mycoskie, the CEO and founder of Tom's footwear got the idea for his company on sabbatical. 6 years in, at the height of Tom's success, he became disillusioned and took another sabbatical. Shoes weren't doing it for him anymore. When he returned, he had figured out that Tom's next step involved using coffee to provide clean drinking water to those in need.
We often can't see the top rung on the ladder from the ground, never mind reach it. The key is to start climbing.
Following your heart is a skill. We might say it is a muscle. Like all muscles, it gets stronger with use. If you have spent the past decade or two not listening to your intuition, it is unlikely that you will suddenly be struck with absolute clarity and conviction. This is a relationship with yourself you must start cultivating. Like any fledgling endeavor, it can be a bit shaky at first. There will be missteps. You might take a job that doesn't fit. But, if you believe in the process, you will trust that in this experience you are growing both wiser and stronger. You will use the information gleaned along the way to make a better next decision from each, incrementally improved, position. The real danger is not making a wrong move, but in staying put and letting this muscle atrophy even further. What does the next step look like for you?
One caveat: If this is a pursuit you are looking to end, if you want to stop growing, changing and evolving, then a life of purpose is not for you. But, if you are excited for the adventure, for not knowing where you will end up in 20 years, then it is time to start climbing.
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