It's no secret or surprise that I believe getting to life calling creates that strong foundation for profound impact. In fact, I believe with many others, it is an essential component to the future of leadership. It gives you this amazing life energy; that hyper focused sense of purpose and passion realized through your personal creative expression that can ultimately change lives for the good.
What makes getting to life calling a powerful thing? It takes your purpose to the next level. I'm sure you've had those introspective days where you might journal down things that interest you, play with what makes you passionate, to even going deeper and honing down to write your own purpose statement and stick it to your bathroom mirror.
While we don't all have to be, or need to be, the next humanitarian global leaders like Nelson Mandela or Mahatma Gandhi, as I believe it was in their own destiny for that level of profound change, we should all individually consider what level of profound change we can create in our own lives.
"You must be the change you wish to see in the world." - Mahatma Gandhi, leader of the Indian independence movement against British rule
It all starts with coming from a place that motivates you from deep within. Giving thought to the two existential questions of: What is your purpose? What were you put on this planet to learn and do? That self awakening process is a very refreshing experience, and that's the first powerful step.
I also invite you to download a free cheat sheet to get to that self awakening here.
The second step is to take knowing your purpose, to living your purpose; as it becomes one with you, is what I call getting to your life calling. When it's congruently integrated into your nervous system it will affect the way you think, get motivated, behave and take action.
Here are five things to expect when you embark on the journey of your life calling.
Feeling totally crazy as you navigate the boundaries between courage, insanity and genius.
As you're spouting "I was born to do this" with conviction, passion and confidence, the people around you might think you're nuts. Whether or not people are talking behind your back, supporting you morally, or just plain out distancing themselves from you, you are doing the feats and taking the inspired action to turn your ideas to reality. There are days when you feel accomplished, and nights where doubts creep in, suggesting to you that you've gone over the deep end and to turn back.
- Practical Tip: Meditation and mindfulness/self-reflection keeps you centered and your mind focused. Consider this as an on-going practice.
You're on the knife's edge of delusion and your inner-genius. It's with faith that you keep consistently doing the things you do because you have this deep unexplainable knowing it's the right thing. Results are a matter of when, and not if.
Getting compounded clarity and building success momentum.
What separates delusion and reality is how life's circumstances fall into place for you almost miraculously. Maybe it's your focus, maybe it's the small positive actions that add up and build a momentum of success. From serendipity leads to synchronicity, and it's the life events, people, circumstances and situations that fall into place that give you that clarity to continue on your path. By following that bliss, results are compounded, networks are created, ideas are spread, and impact is being realized.
Given all the discipline and reasoning for your actions, you can't help to appreciate that non-linear events that seem logically impossible come together and fall into place easily and naturally. You feel alive!
Taking resilience to the next level beyond the grit and grind, and ferociously learning and growing.
Yes, you will make mistakes and have failures, however those failures fuel you to experience such breakthroughs that when you look back, you realize, respect and acknowledge that it is what shaped you; there would be no better way. Life calling is the ultimate builder of character, and the unique pain of those experiences is your rite of passage for greatness that inspires those around you. Further your impact for good by setting an example of your leadership to those around you. It's not the amount of followers that makes you a great leader, it's providing a platform for your followers to do what you do in their own way that expands impact exponentially.
- Practical Tip: Using reframing as a technique will help you identify opportunities and points of leverage to get you into a stable emotional place to take focused action
With more certainty, you begin to recognize your uniqueness and appreciate your life journey. The cliche verbiage, "life is a journey and not a destination" deeply relates to you.
"Life is a journey, not a destination." - Ralph Waldo Emerson, Philosopher Poet
Mastery of releasing emotional baggage and letting go of things that hold you back.
You will experience the "dark night of the soul". These are the constant lessons that keep coming back to you where you try to hide from, but there is no escaping.
Perhaps you have these in your life? The life scripts that keep returning, and the painful emotions that you keep re-experiencing. These scripts could be the type of people and relationships that keep returning, and circumstances that keep triggering specific emotions.
It's when you stop fighting and running, and come to terms and responsibility with the lessons, will you begin to experience an euphoric "lightness" where the world is lifted off your shoulders. As you gain mastery in this area, you'll begin to embrace and befriend these experiences with a type of graceful optimism.
Your story creates it's own gravity.
Your impact journey is your personal story. It's no surprise that stories are a powerful tool. Stories that are authentic and reflect your ebbs and flows of the impact you make in your life are contagious. It attracts, connects and inspires.
Stories can attract you towards your own tribe, reflecting what you desire. (it's been used in advertising for ages to connect with brands)
On the flip side, your story creates a kind of gravity for people to connect with you. These mutual connections and relationships are a core ingredient to what makes up your reality. At life calling, your story is authentic and clear, and it will reflect with the quality of people that surround you.
- Practical Tip: To help turn your ideas into reality, imagine your final outcome and use narratives and stories to fill in the gaps from where you are now to where you want to go. Take the immediate next steps, and adjust your narratives as you go and eventually you will arrive at your final outcome
I feel deep meaningful impact is a rarity these days, and clearly it's not that we can't all do it, it's the fast pace of life and noise that detaches us from the important things we value most. As a result, it leads us to the habits that maintain the inertia of keeping up with our bills and the new "shiny" things in life.
I encourage you to consider for a moment what your life would mean to you, and how would it be different if you are living your purpose.
What impact would you make? How would it affect the people around you; your friends, family, loved ones, your surrounding community?
If you're already on this path, would you agree with the above five observations? If it resonates with you, I invite you to share, comment and expand the dialogue to those around you. If you're on the fence contemplating what it would take to own your greatness, I encourage you to start here at: www.startyourimpactjourney.com
#KeepthePassionAlive #UnleashYourPotential
A little about me... Hi! I'm Duncan So, the Founder & Chief Catalyst of Phinklife, a Systems Change Agency, and the Head of Global Education at the Phinklife Institute for Social Impact empowering leaders for social impact.
Are you considering to heed that call to adventure and make profound and transformative impact, feel free to start here at:www.startyourimpactjourney.com