5 Steps to Live Your Life’s Calling
I’ve been reading the book Your Life Calling – Reimagining The Rest of Your Life by Jane Pauley and it’s based on a 1 year television series she had in 2014 about people in their 50s and older who decided to listen to and live their life calling.
I can relate to a lot of the stories, as I decided to quit my bank job and become a blogger, investor and a stay at home mom when I turned 40.
I really do love helping people learn how to create more free time in their lives, to value themselves and to spend time enjoying life.
Through the stories in the book, I notices some steps have emerged to help you figure out what Your Life Calling is, and to start living it!
Step #1 Look Around And See What Interests You – Inspiration is Everywhere
There was a story in the book where a couple Thmas and Connie Betts found the calling to raise Alpacas and create a tourist attraction Alpaca Yarn Farm when a customer came in and bought a lot of rope from the boating business he was working for. He needed it for his Alpacas.
Another extremely pessimistic man Joe wasn’t sure what he wanted but just knew it was something different. Hiking with his 11 year old daughter, he realized he wanted to hike the Appalachian trail – 6 months of hiking 15 to 20 miles a day and camping everyday.
He created a plan to retire, and prepare for a year, and do it. He also spent 12 years getting in shape, researching, climbing and camping in sub zero temperatures to get ready.
After the hike, he ended up creating a band and writing a book “Trail Magic: Reports from Braid”.
Step #2 Make Small Changes
Maybe you were doing what you love but just not good at it? A professional golfer Michael Allen was on the circuit but always in last place. He finally quit golf and tried medical sales, building houses, but nothing was working.
His friends encouraged him at the Pheonix Open and decided to raise money so he could go back and try professional golf agan. He changed his trainer, changed his approach to fitness and consulted a sport psychologist.
Then he finally started winning, and was back on the PGA tour in 2004. He won the PGA Champions tour the first time he was invited in 2009.
Step #3 Watch Out For Your Ego – Love Yourself In Your Ups and Your Downs
In the book it mentions that doctors have the hardest time reimagining their life. They may not want to do what they are doing but it is so hard to quit. It would be strange to see your doctor doing something completely different.
There’s a story of a Stanford grad who after some good jobs ended up becoming an alcoholic, living in a box on skid row in LA.
One day he stopped fighting, and in his words “I’m drinking, but it’s having no effect. I can’t get a high anymore. I don’t know where the impulse came from, but I just started to talk to God. And I just thanked Him for the wonderful parents and all the opportunities and everything that I had seen in my life. I acknowledged, I am an addict, I’m an alcoholic, I’m here on skid row and I’ll probably die here. I was okay with that. The fight was gone. I had given up. I had surrendered, which was the first step in turning my life around.”
As he started volunteering for the Mission down the street, he started changing his attitude. He got promoted and people realized he could use excel spreadsheets, write letters for fund raising. He didn’t want anyone to know his background, it was too embarrassing.
He eventually moved up into Executive Vice President of the Mission. The highest any former client has ever risen in the Mission.
Step #4 Turn Your Past Time Into A Career
One 6 figure salary health company exec Betsy McCarthy quit her job to do knitting full time. She formed knitting groups and really enjoys creating a knitting community.
She wrote a book Knit Socks and teaches classes on cruises.
She makes low 4 figures now but she’s happy. She and her husband sold their large house and downsized into a condo without a mortgage.
Jan Erickson was many things but mostly liked volunteering. She was a part time paid Care minister for the elderly for her church when she started dreaming about designing a jacket for one of the ladies she visited. She wanted it to be open in the back, so she could put it on easily.
Her and her husband’s research and effort into making comfortable clothes for seniors turned into Janska designs, sold in 750 boutiques in the United States and Canada.
Step #5 Listen to that Inner Voice
Ken Wood was a well digger, retiring and selling his business. People wanted to buy his equipment, and after finally buying it asked him to go with them to Ghana to help them build wells.
He said no initially but after going to an unrelated meeting he found that one of the speakers was from Ghana, and he was talking about how people were dying from lack of water. He took it as a sign, and now takes frequent trips to drill wells in Ghana.
Kirk Rademaker was walking on the beach and felt a calling to join in with folks doing sand art. At the time he was going through a divorce and was in a stressful job as project manager in a cabinet shop in Oakland California. Now he’s a sand carver and makes sand carvings for a living.