You Have to Follow the Breadcrumbs

The November 2010 issue of O Magazine ran a multi-part article by life coach Martha Beck about finding your calling. I want to tell you a little bit about it. If you've read Monday and Thursday's posts, you'll see I like Martha Beck.

I am completely mesmerized by this idea that we each have a calling. Still, I struggle with it sometimes. I’ve made many inroads to living a purposeful life, but working from home has its own set of difficulties.

Freedom does not equal happiness, and the greater the freedom, the greater the responsibility to make skillful life decisions. At least that's how I feel. The things I learned two years ago when I first read Beck's article, I still seem to be learning, just on subtler and more nuanced levels.

Beck explains the process of finding your calling through this analogy:

You are tracking a wild animal. You take a step, scan for it, pick up on its scent, take a step in that direction and keep going. And if you lose the scent, you go back to the last place you had it and try a different direction.

The article reminded me of something I knew but had forgotten while consumed with the day-to-day focuses of my job: following your bliss is a process.

You take one step at a time. Do you feel that inner warmth – that ‘ding’ – that YES? If you don’t, go back to the last place you did and then step from there.

Or, as my friend, the sage and eminent smart-ass Kalonda says: "You have to follow the breadcrumbs."

As I watch my friends uncover there bliss month by month, year by year, I see the same thing: that it is not usually about making a dramatic shift, but about finding the right mode in which to express their already recognized talents. Often he or she will love a certain mode of activity but just haven’t found the right setting or vehicle for it.

Oprah Winfrey, for example, writes that she always wanted to be a teacher. And she is. She just happens not to be in a traditional classroom.

Sans crystal ball, I’m just taking it a day at a time, doing the work that comes to me to my best ability and trying to separate out who I really am from who I think I should be.

How about you? Any inner dings lately?

This article was originally published in Follow Your Bliss magazine. For articles on how to do what you love and love what you do, look for The Best of Follow Your Bliss eBook, to be published in January 2013. What to be notified when the book comes out?

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