Talent Development Resources..............vocation / calling : page 2

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.. .. Have you ever felt like the life you are living is not the one you originally had in mind?  Back when you were a kid, there might have been other things you thought you were going to be, like a Broadway diva or a country doc.  That was before so-called reality hit, back when the only voice you listened to was your own. ... Having the courage to live up to your own ideals is truly refreshing.

When you move from thinking about it to actually doing it, you are amazed by the flow and the ease with which you can suddenly operate.  You may also be struck by how long you waited to finally get on with the real joy in life.  Getting there, however, can be the hard part, because it all begins with awareness.  Often those voices in our heads, whether they belong to parents, well-meaning friends, former bosses, spouses, or even nosy neighbors, may have been playing so long and so loudly we can't even hear them. from article Finding Your Niche in Life by Suzanne Falter-Barns -  more articles and programs on her site: HowMuchJoy.com ..

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.. .. I love proving people wrong. Not all people - just the ones who are operating under the kind of faulty and self-limited assumptions that prevent them -- or the people around them -- from working at what they really love.  That was definitely the case for a recent client named Ellen (not her real name). Ellen was totally convinced she'd be, as she put it, my "first failure," a belief she'd repeat several times throughout our session.

To prepare for our phone meeting, I asked Ellen to send me a list of things she loves to do.  It was pretty clear right from the get-go that she held out little hope of turning any of her passions into viable income streams.  "I don't think there is any money maker in my Love to Do's," she wrote, adding, "I really worked at this list. I am not sure you can help since this is all I came up with." Boy was she wrong. By employing a few simple techniques, I was able to help Ellen come up with not one, not two, not three, but seven ways to make a living doing exactly what she loves. Valerie Young - from her article Ten Tips for Figuring Out How to Get Paid to Do What You Love - from her site ChangingCourse

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* For years I felt haunted by a persistent inner voice that told me I was meant to do more with my life... but I lacked the courage and confidence to take action. At the prompting of a good friend who referred me to her therapist, I finally reached out for help. As I sat in his office waiting for my first appointment, my eyes stopped at a cartoon hanging on the wall. It was Snoopy, Charlie Brown's dog from the "Peanuts" comic strip, struggling to balance a doghouse on his back. The caption below the cartoon read: "There's nothing heavier than the burden of potential."

As I stared at that message I started to cry. I too felt burdened by my unrealized potential. I was bursting with energy and desire but lacked the skills to channel it in the right direction. Once I realized that I could release this burden by taking specific actions to build my confidence and self-esteem, I got to work. Using the gift of guidance and a whole new action plan, I set about making the changes that allowed my true self to emerge.  With each tough choice and courageous step, I slowly learned to trust and act on the wisdom of my inner voice. As I did, my life began to change in ways I never would have imagined. Cheryl Richardson **from her book: Stand Up for Your Life : Develop the Courage, Confidence and Character to Fulfill Your Greatest Potential

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Whenever we decide to follow a calling, we risk giving up a simple life for one that is more demanding and complex.  Anyone whose goal is "something higher," author Milan Kundera says, must expect someday to suffer vertigo, which is not just the fear of falling, but also the desire to fall; it is the voice of the emptiness below that tempts and lures us.  The shift from 'no' to 'yes' in your life can be as challenging as any psychological shift. **from book: Gregg Levoy. Callings  //  photo: James Stewart in "Vertigo"

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Quoting writer Carolyn Heilbrun, Dr. Kathleen Noble says women need a hero myth that inspires them
"to take risks, to make noise, to be courageous, to become unpopular" and notes that a woman "to live
heroically must belong to herself alone; she must be the center of her own life to pursue a wholeness
or integrity that is fluid, inclusive and interconnected...

"The task of being a fully functioning female human being is a formidable and heroic challenge
because a female hero must insist upon herself, something that most women are neither taught
nor encouraged to do."

  from article:  Entitled to Be Exceptional
 

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Career consultants say they have never heard so many people confiding their yearnings
for meaningful vocation, for a life's labor that melds head and heart, for some perfect fit
between inner being and outer circumstance.

But it can be difficult to tease out the thread of true calling from a life-pattern woven
by necessity or default, within a society that does not always reward integrity."

**book:**Marc Ian Barasch. Healing Dreams: Exploring the Dreams That Can Transform Your Life
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"When I'm not using my talent, utilizing my mind, or expressing myself artistically, I feel out of sync. I believe that whatever talent God has given us, it's our responsibility to use," says Jasmine Guy, who, besides her creative endeavors, also co-runs a community outreach center.  "Having a life purpose is very important to me, but I realized that it doesn't have to be on a large scale. That's where the gang-neutral community center 'A Place Called Home' comes in. It's a place where kids can go after school and be safe. They teach computers, dance, yoga and music... even get their GED." Being prolific is nothing new for Jasmine Guy.  ... [Brentwood Magazine brentwoodmagazine.com Jul/Aug 2003]

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.. .. So as much as I wanted to get started on a new career, all I could do was get started on a new philosophy or mythology of who I was and who I was to be.  In retrospect I can tell you that the "doing" of our chosen work comes easy. It is this time of "undoing" that requires every ounce of strength, vision and persistence.  It is meeting the dream-slashing and faith-bashing denouncer, and journaling, praying, and processing your way back to your true-heartedness, the part of you that dreams your dream and knows the shortest path to the quickest stream. ...

You might think this psychic showdown slows you down.  But that's because, in the old way of doing things that created lives we did not want, we insisted that actions furthered us more than feeling our way through to healing.  But on this inside-out, inspired path to true work, the relationship we develop with ourselves is more important than anything else. There is nothing else. All work we love comes from the love we give ourselves. Tama J. Kieves from her book This Time I Dance: Trusting the  Journey of Creating the Work You Love Tama J. Kieves, an honors graduate of Harvard Law School, left her law practice with one of Denver's largest law firms to write, work as a life/work coach, and lead workshops.  Her organization Awakening Artistry provides services to "embolden others to live and breathe their most meaningful self-expression... supporting visionary minds and creative souls in bringing their inspiration into the world."

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I feel that I'm here, as a writer, to help people throw things out of the plane  because they're flying too low. Anne Lamott ....Anne Lamott books

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A Walk My eyes already touch the sunny hill,  going far ahead of the road I have begun. So we are grasped by what we cannot grasp;  it has its inner light, even from a distance- and changes us, even if we do not reach it,  into something else, which, hardly sensing it,  we already are;

a gesture waves us on, answering our own wave... but what we feel is the wind in our faces. Rainer Maria Rilke, 1924, translation by Robert Bly related book: The Selected Poetry of Rainer Maria Rilke image from book: North America the Beautiful

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Discovering your purpose will put your life into crystal-clear perspective. You won't see the world you once knew. You will see another world, one in which you are a necessary and intricate spoke in the wheel. The saddest places on earth are graveyards. Not because people are buried there, but because dreams, talents and purposes that never came to fruition are buried there. Graveyards are filled with books that were never written, songs that were never sung, words that were never spoken, things that were never done. You have talents and gifts that no one else can offer. There are things you can do that no one else is capable of doing quite the way YOU can do them.  Don't rob this earth of your purpose by taking it to the grave with you. You see, we all have a purpose, a reason for living, breathing and existing. We all have unique talents and gifts that were created and given to us to be shared.

.. .. Our task is to understand this and figure out what our purpose is. We owe it to the Universe AND to ourselves! You will become as small as your controlling desire, or as great as your dominant aspiration. Mark Victor Hansen - from Self Improvement and Personal Growth Weekly Newsletter, May 20-21, 2003  www.SelfGrowth.com ....Mark Victor Hansen, Robert G. Allen. The One Minute Millionaire:  The Enlightened Way to Wealth

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.. .. We are all writing the story of our life. We want to know what it's "about," what are its themes and which theme is on the rise. We demand of it something deeper, or richer, or more substantive.  We want to know where we're headed -- not spoil our own ending by ruining the surprise, but we want to ensure that when the ending comes, it won't be shallow. We will have done something. We will have not squandered our time here.  This book is about that urge, that need. I began this project because I hit that point in my life.

The television show I'd been writing for was canceled. The magazines I wrote for had thinned their pages. My longtime book editor had quit to pursue theater and film.  I was out of work, and though I could have hustled up more, I wasn't sure I should.  I felt like the kinds of stories I'd been telling no longer worked. They no longer mapped the depth and drama of human life as I experienced it.  I found I was intrigued by people who had unearthed their true calling, or at least those who were willing to try.  Those who fought with the seduction of money, intensity, and novelty, but overcame their allure. Those who broke away from the chorus to learn the sound of their own voice.  Nothing seemed more brave to me than facing up to one's own identity, and filtering out the chatter that tells us to be someone we're not.     Po Bronson - from his book  What Should I Do with My Life?

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It took me a few years to acknowledge that I had talent -- I mean really know it deep in my heart, not just think it, or pay it lip service. I went to an Ivy League school. I was always considered "smart". In terms of careers, I probably could have been anything I wanted to be.  I chose to follow my heart -- that's just how I've always lived my life. Most of my friends from school are highly paid profesionals at prestigious companies or institutions.  My choosing the path of an artist didn't exactly fit the mold, and people didn't quite know what to make of it. It's hard for people not in the business to think of acting as work, but it is a REAL job -- a fun job, but a job nonetheless, especially in the early stages when you spend most of your time trying to get work. Caryn Shalita - from her article The Art of Acting is the Art of Life

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The first whisper of my life's calling came as a fascination for all things old and mysterious. A dreamy child, I was pulled to the stars in the night sky and to tumbledown buildings; to fairy tales, ghosts, and the Latin chanting during Sunday Mass. ...  I'm here in this world, I've finally realized, to discuss and write about what first lifted my gaze to the night sky as a child - the deeper, mythic side of life.  This discovery feels less like evolving into someone new than like returning to who I always was in the first place.  "You never lose the image in which your soul is shaped," writes Jungian psychologist James Hillman in The Soul's Code: In Search of Character and Calling. "Everyone is marked; each of us is singular." ... It can take decades before a calling becomes clear. This is especially true for those who are born with a multitude of talents. Nearing 40, Goethe, the giant of German literature, could be found wandering through Italy, asking himself, "Am I poet, artist, or scientist?"

.. .. Likewise, the renowned psychologist William James intended to become an artist, shifted to science, then moved to biology and medicine, settling upon psychology and philosophy.  Some contend that a true calling emerges only after midlife. Indeed, given the length of modern-day life spans, even if we have picked the right career in the first half of our lives, we might be ready for something new. from article: "Who are you really? Listen to the call of your soul - and  change your life" by Pythia Peay, Utne, Nov/Dec 2002 utne.com Pythia Peay is author of Soul Sisters: The Five Sacred Qualities  of a Woman's Soul

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.. .. I visited my Northwestern professor Franklyn Haiman. While I had thrived in the drama department, I had never felt more alive than when I was taking his class on First Amendment rights.  "All my life, Professor, I've wanted to be an actress; it's the only thing I ever wanted to do, and when I went to New York it was terrible. I can't sing to save my life, my back is a mess. I want to do serious drama but it could take years to get a part..." I about broke down. "I think I have a good mind..." "You have a really good mind," he consoled me. After a year of rejections I was glad to hear him tell me something nice. "I think I should use it for other things."

"Well, what do you want to do?" "I don't have the faintest idea." It was true. Without my vision of myself as an actress I was bereft of a vision of the future. ... Professor Haiman paused.. "How about that First Amendment course? You did very well there." "I loved that course. That was my favorite course in college!" "Why don't you think about going to law school?" I had never given it a moment's thought. "Girls don't go to law school," I told him. "No, but women do." Rikki Klieman - from her autobiography:  Fairy Tales Can Come True - How a Driven Woman  Changed Her Destiny Rikki Klieman has been an Anchor at the Courtroom Television Network and is an attorney with a Boston law firm. In 1983, she was named one of the five most outstanding women trial lawyers in the country by TIME Magazine.  quotes from rikkiklieman.com

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Mission is often found through adversity.  It's often found when people go through a very big crisis in their life -- their spouse dies, they go through a life-threatening illness themselves, they lose one of their children -- and they say, "I've really got to rethink why I'm here on earth, and I have to pay attention to how my work fits into it or doesn't fit." Another factor that causes them to ask, "What is my mission in life?" is that they're bored out of their minds at their jobs.  They say, "A job has got to do more than just give me a salary and put bread on the table. It has to give me a sense that I'm here on earth doing something worthwhile."

.. .. If they start to say that to themselves, then they are going to work very hard to find out what their mission is. Richard Nelson Bolles   [Business Week, Jan.4.01] **How to Find Your Mission in Life

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There are three hungers that people are trying to feed throughout their lives. The first is to connect deeply with the creative spirit of life... That doesn't mean that you have to be a creative person in a classic sense - to make your living as a painter, dancer, writer ..  It could mean finding ways to infuse the workplace with more creativity and more playfulness. The second hunger is to know and express your gifts and talents... The third hunger is to know that our lives matter." Richard J. Leider[Fast Company, Feb.98]  author of book The Power of Purpose and column Find Your Calling

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The first step is to find out what you love - and don't be practical about it. The second step
is to start doing what you love immediately, in any small way possible.  I've seen what happens
to people when they get to do what they love. They light up. They glow. They have a kind of energy
that's wonderful.

Barbara Sher  ... [from Wisdom of the Day newsletter: info from cgbetit@SOVER.NET]

**Live the Life You Love: In Ten Easy Step-By Step Lessons
 

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Imagine, a river of water flowing down a mountain path. This powerful body of water continues to flow down hill picking up speed. It continues to flow until suddenly, it hits a small rock in the path.  Whereupon, the small obstacle immediately stops it. That's a visual image of the fallacy of flow that many of us have.  We mistakenly believe that if we're truly living on purpose, there should be no obstacles along our path, no challenges, no adverse circumstances, no failed expectations. But this is a fallacy. The Purposeful Path often has as many obstacles in it as any other path through life.

.. .. What shifts is our relationship to them. In other words, flow is an inner transformation to the outer world. excerpt from article The Fallacy of Flow by W. Bradford Swift - in his newsletter: Purposeful Pondering Ezine, December 4, 2002 - available from lifeonpurpose.com **Traveling the Purposeful Path - by W. Bradford Swift

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During her career, Julia.. had accomplished and contributed a great deal...  yet she was still unsatisfied with her career. This dissatisfaction affected every aspect of her life. After deep soul-searching, Julia began to understand that she was a creative free spirit, a woman who was trying to wear a formal suit and work in a traditional environment. Julia was conflicted as to how to meld her creative nontraditional side with her need to be a success in the working world  Julia and I began working together to identify the path that would get her closer to her true spirit. from article: Creative Dreams Come True - Confessions of a Creativity Coach by Suzanne Levy *more quotes on:....coaching: page 2

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Attending to the voice of the soul rather than the needs of the ego means learning to distinguish between the "social self" and the "essential self," according to career counselor Martha Beck, author of Finding Your Own North Star. The "social self" learns early to adapt to the expectations of society. The "essential self," on the other hand, is made up of the core desires a person is born with. from article: "Who are you really? Listen to the call of your soul - and change your life"  by Pythia Peay, Utne, Nov/Dec 2002 utne.com

*related page: ego / narcissism

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*more :.........vocation / calling : page 1.........*vocation / calling resources : articles / sites / books.........

........career / workplace.........change / growth : page 1....change / growth resources : books  sites  articles......

........depth psychology.........spirituality

*books: career / workplace..........

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