Without a doubt, one of the biggest challenges for us all and the question I am most often asked is: How do you find your true calling?
I started my first business 12 years ago. It's been a rocky old journey - plenty of sleepless nights mixed with glowing success, plus stuff-ups alongside audacious goals achieved. I've loved every minute of it (because even when it's bad it's good, or as American writer of the 1800s Edgar Allan Poe said, "The best things in life make you sweaty.") and I very much believe it brought me to The Collective, which I know with every cell of my body is my true calling.
People always ask how you find your purpose. It's different for everyone (just throw five friends in a room and pose the question) but for me it included a lot of praying to the universe, saying I was ready for whatever it had in store for me, letting go, surrendering and not being attached to the outcome. I hung in there with lots of dedication, perseverance, patience and a belief that if I wanted it badly enough, and if my intentions were pure enough, it would come.
I kept asking, "How can I have the greatest, most positive impact on this world?" I just kept repeating it. And then as if by magic, it dropped (into my heart, into my head or into my lap, whichever way you think it rolls). Every part of me knew its potent truth unequivocally and in the same way it had arrived, that notion of purpose unfolded with perfect synchronicity and serendipity.
Here are a few tools that might help you along the way in uncovering your own true calling in business or life, or perhaps in both...
Know yourself well. Understand your weaknesses, strengths, beliefs and values.
Make discovering your purpose, your purpose. Imagine the impossible. That is enough.
Stay open to opportunities and then experiment, experiment, experiment. Don't be afraid of failing.
Believe you are good enough and that no one, and I mean no one, is better than you. You are not your past and you can create any future you want.
Seek creative outlets, try different hobbies and put yourself out there. Live life. Really live it! Paint, draw, doodle, read, sing, knit, craft, build, act, cook, photograph, dive, climb, go WILD. Just start doing something. Anything.
Write down a list of people you admire and why. Adopt these traits as a way for you to show up in the world.
Find a format you like for personal growth. It might be to educate yourself, train yourself, talk to others, network, find a great mentor, or to learn to replicate and duplicate with consistency.
Develop a thick skin, strength and match fitness. It's imperative so you become grateful for rejection and see it as experience instead of a paralyser.
Know that at any moment in time you can change your attitude. No matter your past failures or triumphs, you can have a positive mindset anytime you CHOOSE.
Do what you love.
Listen for the consistencies from people around you. Often you are really great at something that's just a hobby now. If people keep commenting on how great you are at it, perhaps there's a way to monetize it and take it to your business world. People often see things in us that we haven't recognized ourselves. What are the things you do naturally without even thinking about it?
Develop a spectacularly different approach to everything.
Be a trailblazer, break the rules, disrupt, take a different road and do it fearlessly.
Set aside time to reflect, check in and recharge. Fatigue can make cowards of us all.
Notice how you feel. If you are on purpose, you will feel excited, exhilarated, full of adrenaline, alive and the very best version of yourself.
Feel the fear and do it anyway.
Always be yourself. Stay grounded and remember where you came from.
Just start.