The clearer you are about who you are, the clearer you will be on what you really, really want – your sacred purpose – that which places you in the midst of life’s creative flow!
If you have been trying to figure out your sacred purpose – especially if you are or know of a younger person trying to decide on a future career, I encourage you to take a moment to really absorb the reality of that statement…
The more you can peel away from your identity the external layers of expectation, programming and even familial, societal or cultural fear we are all affected by, the more you are able to really get a taste for the unfettered truth of what makes your heart sing.
In other words, the more you are able to consciously distinguish yourself from the identities, thought forms and expectations that are not you, the more you are able to experience alignment with your real self.
Career or Calling?
From the minute – and perhaps even before – we are born, we are each the effect of countless belief systems each wrapped up with its own perspective, variables and so called ‘logical’ fears.
As we make our appearance in the world, we are unwittingly handed the belief systems and expectations of our parents and families – belief systems and expectations that have perhaps been established over the course of many generations. The beliefs and past experiences of our ancestors get integrated and compounded into each successive generation that follows, on different levels and to varying degrees.
As we grow up, we go on to gain exposure to other perspectives and belief systems as we become socialised in schools and other purpose-built communities. At some point along the way, as adolescents – and often midway through the throes of puberty – we are asked to choose a future career in order that our our focus might become more streamlined towards that end.
There are at least a couple of really striking observations that can be made of this means of deciding on a future career.
The first is that, barely out of childhood with no experience of the dynamics, expectations and norms of the working world, we are asked in our early teen years to choose a future industry and career, closing ourselves off to future possibilities. We choose our career stream with little understanding of our own potential and desires, or our relationship to the field we choose to work in.
The second observation is that as young, pubescent adolescents, up to that point there has been very little emphasis on the development of one’s understanding and relationship to his/herself. And without self-awareness, self-understanding simply cannot exist. Without self-understanding, it simply isn’t possible to make an informed decision about the direction of our education as a means of securing a future long-term career.
Indeed, true self-discovery and self-understanding by and large tends to be explored outside of the mainstream education system by the lucky few who have been fortunate enough to stumble upon the notion and recognise it for what it is.
For many others however, the sad truth is that in being made at a young, impressionable age to choose a career they know very little about, through no fault of their own, they are inadvertently set up for decades to feel doomed to fail.
The fortunate individuals are the ones who earlier than most of their peers, have a strong, often unspoken understanding that their inner knowing or voice – rather than any external authority – is nothing less than the compass that will enable them to confidently navigate their way through life. It is as if in some way, they realise at a very young age that life is meant to be a journey rather than a destination.
They possess a fundamental understanding that there is a magical adventure that unfolds when they listen to and honour that inner voice within.
And it doesn’t matter what it is they decide they want to pursue or experience so much as it is the self-assured manner in which they are able to do it. There is an element of irresistible clarity and universal truth that shines through clearing the way in front of them so that in some mysterious way, they are able to confidently step forward and shine.
As you can see, there are at least two very different ways of building a future i.e. pursuing a career, or finding your sacred life’s work. For those who approach life from a holistic perspective, the path which is intuitive and self-led is the more authentic, exciting, inspired, sustainable and enjoyable of the two.
I believe that if there were more education to raise awareness of this amongst young people, there would be much less unhappiness, competition and angst around feeling like they were making the “right choice” or letting themselves or anyone else down – and all because of one ill-advised decision they were required to make regarding their future before they were truly ready, informed and equipped.
Luckily however, there is a way we can give this occurrence a context in order that we can better navigate our lives around it. One popular school of thought amongst new-age theorists is that as Spirits – before we incarnate into this lifetime – we actually choose precisely the situations, families, relationships, countries, cultures and other influences that will help tease our real Selves out.
These external factors then play and feature in our lives in ways that enable us to gain first-hand understanding of just the types of experiences that speak and resonate with our souls and higher purpose for choosing to incarnate in this lifetime – ironically – often by way of us encountering those which don’t.
The great thing about this theory is that if we can allow ourselves to consider our lives from this perspective, it takes us out of the role of being a victim into one of empowerment with the ability to exercise free will.
Couple that with a desire to grow your intuition and self-awareness and no matter what your current life situation, you have all the ingredients you need to seek out a career that honours the real you. Your clear intent and determination to follow and trust your intuition to lead you there – or to an even better place that you are able to imagine – places you in the midst of life’s creative flow.
You become sacred purpose in motion, realising that your sacred life’s work is an ever-evolving process and not a destination in and of itself.
You bypass the trap of feeling pressured to blindly ‘choose’ a ‘perfect’ logical outcome that at best, represents the combined ideas, thought forms, expectations and beliefs of the external players in your life.
You give yourself the opportunity to follow your truth – the wisdom that bubbles within your depths.
And in seeing, hearing and thereby validating yourself, others begin to see the merits in what you want to experience, do or create. You become an unstoppable force in your outer life, powered unbeknownst to others, by the flame of infinite knowing and wisdom within.
“Career or Calling? Finding Your Sacred Purpose,” by Caroline Diana Bobart, February 13, 2015 at https://wakeup-world.com/2015/02/13/career-or-calling-finding-your-sacred-purpose/
Original link: Career or Calling? Finding Your Sacred Purpose