Answering The Call

"Don't ask yourself what the world needs. Ask yourself what makes you come alive and go do that, because what the world needs is people who have come alive." - Howard Thurman

What makes you come alive?

What's something that when you start doing it you almost forget you have to eat or pee?

Every person is born with inherent gifts—interests they're naturally more inclined to learn and do.

I think we often have the impression that our gifts should come easy. I don't think that's true. They can be the most challenging of all. But somehow they just feel more interesting and worth it.

I spent years working at a corporate job. I worked hard at it and had saw a lot of growth. But all along the way, I knew that wasn't where I wanted to be. 

I was being called to something else.

It took me a while to answer "the call". And the reason why is because I was waiting for the world to give me permission to answer.

One day several years into my college career, I walked out of class on the last day of spring semester and had the overwhelming feeling that I was on the wrong path. Not that school was wrong in general, but just wrong for me. Like I was living someone else's idea of success. Checking a box on a list of requirements. And up to that point, I had been too afraid to write my own list.

I had long wanted to start my own business. So that day, walking up the cement stairs to the parking lot in the perfect spring air, I made the decision to never go back. I graduated myself that day. 

Here's what I've come to learn about "the call" of the soul, the same reason it says in the Bible that "...many are called, but few are chosen", the choosing doesn't come from the outside. It comes from within.

Your gifts, your talents, your interests ARE the call. Whether or not to be chosen is up to you!

But no worries. I understand the call can be scary. The future is uncertain and unmade. 

In fact, most people go through life ignoring the call. About 95% of people spend all their time doing work completely unrelated to their natural gifts. And wondering why they don't feel fulfilled.

Why do so many of us do this?

Because we're afraid. Because the path we've been told to follow seems more secure and reliable. And the fact is most people trade freedom and fulfillment for security.

Most people don't want to stand out. Like Earl Nightingale said "The opposite of courage in our society is not cowardice, it's conformity." 

But you're not just anybody. You're YOU! And you were born to stand out. 

So there's really only one question.

Will you answer the call?

Only you know what that call is. The one that's been nudging you for years to take a chance.

You've been called.