Our calling evolves over time. We can look back and see signs of it throughout out lives. It appears in the things we love to do most. It usually manifests as something we do so naturally that we almost don’t notice it. But it shows up in different manifestations throughout our entire life.
Sometimes the gifts of our calling are subtle
When I was in high school, I was chosen to be the Managing Editor of the school paper. Not the Literary Editor, but the organizer, the manager. In college, I was House Manager of my sorority – another organizing position. As a young mother, I organized the Picture Lady Program for our school, which ended up being taken over and expanded upon by the Nelson Gallery of Art in Kansas City.
All of those were signs that I was a good organizer – that it was a gift I was to use in my life. But one subtle part of that gift of organizing took a very long time for me to realize. It was that I was also a good organizer of ideas.
This showed up in the clarity of my writing. It was elicited as I identified the overview of their purpose for my coaching clients. And ultimately I figured out that I have a gift for explaining the complex in simple forms.
But it took a lot of years to put all that together.
Look beyond the what for the why
It’s easier to see your calling in retrospect. I have been involved with a lot of newsletters. There is something in me that gets excited about sharing ideas with others. It shows up in my writing and my teaching. I can’t explain the “why” I do it. It is just a very, very, very strong urge. A calling, you might say.
Your calling changes forms
A friend has worked in corporate leadership development. Now she is being called to move from the rigid confines of a big company into a coaching business to help people learn to lead from within. She is redefining her calling, examining the depth of what she knows and reshaping it to add what is calling to her, a spiritual component, that of leading by example. As she searches for her new place of service, she searches for the words to explain it. She’s looking for the people whose lives she can change. She’s still exploring.
She’s taking her huge background in leadership development and exploring the leading edge of a new form of leadership. She has no idea where it will take her, she simply knows she must do it. The call is strong and she’s certainly answering it.
Follow those inner urges
The urges that call me to write are so strong I have no choice. An idea appears and I leap to my computer and explore it. I am lucky. At 83 I get to stay in my own rhythm, follow my own urges, and do exactly what I feel called upon to do.
However busy you are, find a way to develop your own stye, your own rhythm, your own self-expression. Listen. Learn to interpret. Express yourself in a new way. Accept new opportunities. Look for new venues.
Most of all trust those urges. Look at what you do well in a new light. Learn to repurpose it or reapply it in a new way.
Your calling is at your core. It’s your soul speaking. Listen to your calling, discover its many forms and go where it leads you.
To Sing a Deeper Song Consider:
Can We Think our Way to Success?
How Do You Nurture “Different”
Learn to Honor Your Inner Rhythm
The Power of Your Personal Path
Can You Control Your Own Destiny?
40 – Who Do yo Want to Serve?
32 – How to See Your Work As Art
27 – Why Have You Been Chosen
28 – How to Walk Beside Someone in Service
