Listen—Your Purpose Is Calling You

There’s no pressure. That’s the difference. That’s the misconception. That’s where we all go astray.

We spend all this time trying to “figure it out” when we’re being led there all along. Your calling is your calling; it’s not your “supposed to” or your “discipline,” it’s what you are called to do.

It’s like true love. No matter how frustrating it gets, or how many times you are tempted to give up, you literally can’t. Your heart won’t let you. And despite trying to give up, doing what you are meant to do will always love you right back. This is what’s for you, and you can never truly give up what you were put in this world to do. It has nothing to do with fate and everything to do with purpose.

The times when you don’t feel called to your purpose are the times that you will feel pushed by everything that it’s not. This is why you’re so tired—it takes more energy to avoid doing what you are called to do than to actually do it. Stop trying to convince yourself that you are meant to do things that make you miserable. Stop trying to convince yourself that you aren’t flourishing because you aren’t struggling enough. When it’s your purpose that’s the motivator, your work will fuel you, not exhaust you.

Chances are, you have some idea of what your purpose is. It’s the thing that you want to do but don’t have time for or don’t think you’ll be successful enough at. This is why you’re settling for what’s “safe,” but really, what is safe about living a life that makes you miserable? The only thing you’re saving yourself from is fulfillment. Or maybe you know you could do it if x, y and z worked out, but you refrain from accomplishing the laundry list because you don’t want to go about success in a nonlinear fashion. That’s the only way to reach success though, and it’s the only way that it’ll be worthwhile when you finally have the freedom to pursue what you were meant to all along.

Maybe you started following your calling but faced a few bumps along the way and have since convinced yourself that it’s not really what you’re meant to do. It’ll keep calling you anyway. It’s up to you to listen, because the longer you ignore it, the more pain you’ll be in.

Maybe you think you don’t deserve it. Or maybe you think you don’t deserve it as much as the next person who’s trying to do something similar. That’s not your authentic voice talking or trying to convince you of your unworthiness—it’s the white noise from a world full of people who convinced themselves of that very thing and tried to spread the poison to you. You may have internalized it and convinced yourself that this isn’t really your calling. Don’t buy it. Deep down, you know. You know this is what you’re here for.

There are countless quotes and books about not fearing failure. It seems not enough can be said about it, because we all grapple with how to overcome it. Jim Carrey summed it up beautifully in his commencement speech at the Maharishi University of Management when he said, “My father could have been a great comedian but he didn’t believe that was possible for him. So he made a conservative choice. Instead, he got a safe job as an accountant and when I was 12 years old, he was let go from that safe job and our family had to do whatever we could to survive. I learned many great lessons from my father. Not the least of which was that you can fail at what you don’t want, so you might as well take a chance on doing what you love.”

So the next time you feel the impulse to pursue what you love, forget the rest and just go for it full force. Block out the white noise. Listen closely.

Because your purpose is calling you.