Does Your Work Stir Your Heart?
OUR LUMINOUS LEGACY
At the end of your day, do you feel a deep glow of satisfaction at what you got to do and how well you did it? Did you get to stretch yourself a bit, offer your best self in service, change a few lives?
If you did, you’re doing work that stirs your heart. Keep doing more of that.
I’m lucky. There’s nothing more awesome in life than having the freedom to do exactly what you want to do every day. As a retired old person, my days lie open with an invitation to soar. And I do. It’s only now that I no longer have to make a living that I realize how vitally important it is to do what you love to do.
What’s your passion?
What do you love to do more than anything else in the world? Forget about its financial potential. What calls to you in the moment? What makes your heart sing?
Follow your gifts
My passion is learning new philosophical things. I read, I take courses, and I write to clarify and figure out how to apply it to my life. Then I share what I learn with others. As long as I can keep learning and exploring and sharing, I’m fulfilled and joyously satisfied. I don’t like to repeat things. I prefer to keep building and expanding.
All it takes to stir your heart is a passionate interest and identifying how you want to express that interest. What’s calling you? How do you express it? How do you explore it? What are your unique gifts? How do you use them? What do people ask you to do for them? What is an over-arching pull that takes you on life’s adventures? Go do more of that!
Your gifts will call throughout your life
I began using writing as a way to express myself in my teens. I remember writing poems for my high-school newspaper. I still write poems – odd ones – but I call them poems. My senior year, I was tapped as Managing Editor – not Literary Editor – because someone recognized organizational skills I had no clue I had. I’m still a fabulous organizer.
My first job out of college was as a radio continuity editor at a major station in Kansas City. I have no idea how I qualified for that right out of college but that was another call to develop my writing and organizational skills. I have written for print, radio and television, served as on-air talent for both radio and television and worked as a copywriter in advertising agencies. I have produced small books and blog posts and podcasts and a few videos. I’ve always been called to be a communicator.
You have a similar thread, something you have done throughout your life. Look back and identify the most joyous and satisfying times until you see signs of the path you have taken that shows your passion, your calling, and your place of illumined service.
Let your heart guide you
What calls to you so deeply you cannot resist the pull? What makes you tear up in anticipation of sharing it? There is some way that you participate in the world that deeply nourishes you. Go do more of that.
This calling, this deep urge to share in a particular manner, needs to be a part of what you offer, an integral element in the work you do. That doesn’t mean you have to start your own business around that gift or even do it as a major part of your work. It simply means you need to know your own passion, your own gifts, your own heart and use them regularly throughout your life.
Begin with that call, that deep yearning, that undeniable need to explore, discover, and share.
Follow that. It’s your heart calling you. Share it with the world.
Do those things which stir your heart and change the lives of others. What you set out to accomplish has to consume you with the need to express it. Then you find ways to make it valuable to others.
To Sing a Deeper Song consider
Live in the Center of Your Being
What are the Foundations Stones Upon Which Your Build Your Life