Uncovering Your Soul Purpose

How I Stepped Into Living My Life Calling

In the last few years the conversation around work has changed for the better. We’ve evolved the conversation to fulfillment and purpose. With a focus on finding greater meaning in what we do, including an emphasis on our own well being and personal happiness. Which is wonderful and a far stretch from where we’ve been.

So many of us, for too long, have been overworked, and stressed out. Waking up to go to jobs we don’t fully love or even like. We even created an acronym for it; VUCA. While it’s true that the pace of societal change, fueled by our 24/7 global economy and never ending technology disruptions, creates significant stress in the workplace — I believe there’s something bigger at play.

For me, the primary source of my own unhappiness in the corporate world wasn’t merely due to the environment. It was because I wasn’t following my heart’s true calling.

In my new book, Dare to Believe: 12 Lessons for Living Your Soul Purpose, I share my story and journey to uncovering and aligning to my soul purpose. For me, it was a long and enduring battle between my heart and my mind. All the while knowing that my heart wanted much more for me than I had been giving it.

What did it want?

For starters, it wanted me to stop spending the majority of my waking hours doing something that was making me sick — emotionally, mentally and physically. In turn, it wanted me to spend my days doing something I loved. Something that would light me up and fill me with passion and pure joy; feeding me with such intensity, it would become a spiritual calling.

My soul purpose.

But for too long my head said, “not possible.” And it was right, in part. Which is why I had to change my perspective first.

So no matter how many wellness days, thoughtful, valued-aligned leaders or other corporate packaging that made my VUCA-filled career more bearable, my heart continued to call out. It was telling me that what we do with our time for 8+ hours a day, every day of our life, is one of the most sacred things to consider. Alternately, that living in a state of never ending survival consciousness, isn’t what’s meant for us. How could it be?

I sought to learn how I could choose differently; ultimately, how we could.

A True Self Calling

For so many of us, like me, our true self is a part of ourselves that we’ve long been disconnected from. A part of ourselves that we’ve ignored or buried. And while many hide their true self for years — even decades — it’s always there.

Through my journey, I’ve found that living your soul purpose is about awakening to who you really are; an embodiment of heart. Knowing your heart as the real you and operating from this place, despite what the world is showing you, is the goal. While the truth is interconnectedness and love, many of us experience a reality that says otherwise; we feel separate. We believe the fears that are presented to us.

However, when we begin to acknowledge and consciously live from the one truth, opposed to the illusion of fear, we are on our way. This is what soul purpose, at its core, is all about.

Quiet the Negative Ego

Therefore, when it comes to living your soul purpose, every day will become a lesson in choosing love (true self) over fear (ego self). Why? Because our ego wants us to repress, bury, and ignore our true calling. It doesn’t understand these things, as our chief protector, it tells us they’re not possible. In short, what you want — what’s in your heart — is anchored to love; and the ego doesn’t know or understand love.

In fact, most of us believe deeply in the fear-based illusions the ego presents to us. We think of them as truths. They’re not.

These limiting belief systems, of which so many of us subscribe, serve to keep us constrained in some way. They keep us from living our dreams, blocking us from following what’s in our heart. Can you think of any limiting beliefs you have that have shaped your reality, for the negative? Perhaps you think there’s no such thing as having a life calling or that your dreams just aren’t feasible. This is your ego at play.

But don’t worry, with practice and conscious awareness, you can choose differently.

Surrender to What You Really Want

One of the key things you’ll need to do to step into your soul purpose, is to get deeply in touch with your heart. What do you really want? Ask yourself and hear the answer. Don’t judge; don’t block yourself. Embrace your feelings as clues about your actual truth.

Why? Being in touch with the desires that are in your heart is how you come to understand your purpose. That’s because soul purpose is something that’s centered entirely in your heart, not your mind. It cannot be figured out. It can only be revealed.

With that, know that your heart has all the answers you ever need. By accepting and surrendering to the answer, no matter how wild or impossible it seems, your true calling will begin to reveal itself.

Believe What You Want is Possible

Once you uncover what you really want to do with your life, you’ll need to work on your belief muscle. This includes a daily practice of believing in the feasibility of your dream. It took me a long time to learn that if my heart can imagine it, it is possible. I didn’t understand that what’s in my heart is divine, and that the universe doesn’t place things in our hearts that aren’t possible. It’s not cruel or trying to taunt us.

In other words, what my heart wants for me is actually what my higher self knows to be true. The great potential for our lives are our most precious dreams. But we hide from them, because our chief protector (AKA the ego) tells us what we want isn’t possible.

However, while good intentioned, the ego is simply wrong. Know, that you are meant for so much more. Believing that is the first critical step on your soul purpose journey.

Where To Start

It’s starts with a making a decision and setting a clear intention. If you are currently in a job you hate, living a life you don’t love. Then simply make the decision — right now — to align your life to your soul purpose, no matter how long it takes. Once you make this profound choice, you are on the path.

Then set an immediate intention. What can you imagine for yourself right now? You deserve to honor your highest potential. Set an intention — knowing it will evolve — and be open to receiving it. From there, trust that more will be revealed. Then, take daily inspired action towards this intention. And watch as your soul purpose filled life begins to unfold.

If you are looking for more guidance, in my book, I detail step-by-step, “DIY coursework.” The 12 courses featured can be done completely on your own to immediately start transforming your life.

Either way, don’t wait. Your truth is waiting for you.