“Do not wait until the conditions are perfect to begin. Beginning makes the conditions perfect.”
-Alan Cohen
I grew up in Louisville, Kentucky in a close-knit, blue-collar, small community. My father died when I was seven and left my mother to raise me. As a “career housewife,” she was forced to quickly learn a marketable skill to support us. She became a caregiver for children and older adults.
Like many other people, my mother’s career and life path was the result of chance rather than personal choice. Yet no one in my community or even my own family ever asked me, “Joyce, what do you want to do with your life?”
During most of my youth, I yearned to move to New York to work in the fashion industry, a dream which was clearly not supported by my family. Both my mother and brother encouraged me to get a job that would provide me with income that would support me for my lifetime.
So I abandoned my New York dreams and became a nurse. This worthwhile profession provided me much personal freedom and a good salary for most of my life. I loved being a nurse for years yet I never really allowed myself to explore my calling of who I really am.
I never really understood what a “calling” was or how to find my life purpose until I started working on my own personal and spiritual development.
In my late 30’s, I realized part of my life-long dream. I moved to New York City, yet to work as the Clinical Nurse Director in a hospital. Over time, I became increasingly challenged to continue working along this path. I was beginning to listen to my “calling” to leave the career I had in order to create a new life more aligned with who I truly am.
On the day I resigned my position, I had no concrete plan for my life; nevertheless I took the first step on my life’s new path by enrolling in classes on how to run a business.
Again, I had no clear vision at that time, yet I bravely took action which launched me in the right direction after so many years on other paths.
Looking back over the past 30 years, I realize that I have recreated my life path multiple times. I have been a fashion consultant, a travel and meeting planner, a nurse consultant and now, a life and wellness coach. Each choice seemed to move me closer to my deeper life passion and purpose.
Are You Listening to Your Calls?
Perhaps you are already discovering that, as you move through life, your soul becomes “louder”: it starts to wake you up, shake you up, and demand more of you related to your life’s purpose, which is what your divine/God self expressed through you, wants you to do with your talents, your gifts, and your life.
Do you recognize these clues that indicate that you are moving toward your calling?
- Your current job or daily routine is increasingly stealing your joy and your energy. You find yourself exhausted at the end of every day, and are even more tired thinking about doing it again tomorrow.
- You have recurring symptoms such as a pain in your neck or shoulders which could be a metaphor for your life, as in you are “shouldering too much responsibility.”
- You feel a “tugging” inside you toward something else, but you either can’t identify exactly what that “something else” is, or you don’t allow yourself to explore what it could be.
- You keep relying on or reliving old patterns, old habits, or an old routine that worked for you in the past, only to find that now, they don’t. Doors that used to open easily are locked. Traditional paths lead to brick walls.
- You look for opportunities and excuses to do the things you love more often, and “sneak” them into your day when no one is watching because they’re your only lifesavers right now.
Recognize these feelings? That’s because your soul is trying to get your attention, get your head out of the way, and get you to listen to what you need to do to move forward.
Coaching mid-life women who are in transition, crisis or change to find their life purpose in their career, health, relationships, finances or well-being, is MY life purpose.
What’s yours? Have you always dreamt of doing something such as write a book, start a foundation to support children or women, live in a foreign country, get more education, and change your career…but until now, have never allowed yourself to do?
Blessings, Joyce
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