When I started college I had no idea what I wanted to devote my entire life to. I knew I was passionate, artistic, ambitious and organized, but I didn't know what career to choose.
It was actually pretty daunting to have lived so long without very much choice and then be expected to make the biggest decision that would determine the course of my life at age 18. It felt crazy for me to choose a major just because I had reached that age and the time had come for me to choose.
So I started asking older and wiser people for advice about what they majored in for college and how that played out in their life.
The advice I received again and again was, "Choose based on what you love to do. The rest will figure itself out." Many people shared with me that what they chose to study when they were young didn't determine the rest of their life. Many also shared they wished they had chose what they loved rather than choosing out of other people's expectations for them.
I was relieved, because I had many talents and interests and simply needed more time to try them all. I wanted to find what really felt right. I didn't just want to prepare myself for a job, I wanted to find my calling.
Marianne Williamson says, "A job is an exchange of energy in which you do a material task and someone provides money in exchange. A calling, however, is an organic field of energy that emerges from the deepest aspects of who you are. It is the fulfillment of what God has created you to be and do.
You have a calling simply because you are alive.
You are on this earth with divine purpose: to rise to your highest creative possibility, expressing all that you are to make the universe a more beautiful place."
I felt this from a young age, that I had a calling and needed to give myself the time and space to ask and discover what it was.
It wasn't until after college I really started asking the bigger questions and had a desire to move to San Francisco. That intuitive move led me to meet one of my very first spiritual teachers (Amma), which led me to become a yoga teacher and travel to India.
Sometimes my ego would enter and say, "You need to just get a job. You need to get real." But I knew my soul was bigger than that. I did try different jobs and internships but was always called back to ask about this "something bigger."
So how did I make a choice and find my calling?
I learned to:
1. Listen to my intuition. With each job I tried, I noticed how it felt to be doing that job. I asked, "Do I want to be doing this for the rest of my life?"
2. Give myself time and space to ask the bigger questions without a need for an answer. I learned the answers only come when I am ready for them.
Even though I chose a major of what I loved to do (photography), my life continued to unfold. My own discomfort in my body, exhaustion and anxiety led me to yoga and my own healing through nutrition led me to become a health coach.
Life unfolded the path for me and with commitment to asking the bigger questions, I found the fulfillment that only living your calling can fulfill.
So maybe you are just stepping out into life on your own and want to discover this deeper calling, or maybe you have been in a job for years and don't yet feel like you've found that larger sense of purpose...
Wherever you are in your career, remember: It's never too late to be who you were born to be. {tweet it}
If you feel called to create the space for yourself to ask these bigger life questions, join me tonight for"Purpose" the final call in a series of three teleseminars.
I'll be sharing more of my personal insights, stories and inspiration, as well as leading a guided writing exercise for each person to open to their unique purpose. You can sign up here to get the access code and a recording of all three calls (Magic, Power and Purpose) in your inbox.
You'll also hear more details about my upcoming group program where I will be guiding a group of women to open to their purpose and create a new vision for their life.
With love, Meredith
