Taking a career risk to fulfill your purpose
“Your advice was really valuable and very much appreciated. It is always good to have conversations where one is encouraged to take risks. You have challenged me to step out of my comfort zone, and that is exactly what I am going to do – step out, try things out and acquire as much knowledge as I can by doing things.” (Desiree A.)
Each one of us has a purpose to accomplish.
Desiree is no different.
She was someone whom I met in one of my training courses and we caught up later for coffee.
I am privileged and honored to learn about her story.
As we talked around her personal aspirations, ambitions, and what’s on her heart, it became evident to me that there are deep desires and longing within her to create a meaningful and purposeful life.
Uniquely called for a purpose
“If you deliberately plan on being less than you are capable of being, then I warn you that you’ll be unhappy for the rest of your life.” (Abraham Maslow)
Everyone has a WHY.
Everyone has a purpose, cause or belief that truly inspires.
Knowing our WHY gives us a filter to make choices, at work and at home. It will help us find greater fulfillment and purpose in all that we do and how we prioritise our time.
The Japanese call it, Ikigai, the “reason for being”.
While everybody has a purpose, many people remain unconscious of it throughout his or her entire lives.
The danger of being unconscious of your purpose is that you may confuse it with your worldly goals such as career, making more money, or just being successful for the sake of it.
In this confusion, you may try to force your purpose into an inappropriate form.
For some, it will become emptiness in their lives at some stage. Mid-life crisis may set in.
Passion and purpose distinguished
Our passion may fuel our purpose.
But passion without purpose is dangerous.
In everything we do, we really need to be driven by something better, which is the purpose.
Purpose is like passion with boundaries.
T.D. Jakes says that “if you can’t figure out your purpose, figure out your passion. For your passion will lead you right into your purpose”.
Passion is about something.
For example, I am passionate about financial literacy for children.
Purpose is doing something for someone.
For example, my purpose is to teach children the keys of financial success and freedom and how to become successful by igniting their ambition to change their lives.
It’s about pursuing something external as opposed to internally pleasuring.
But you also need to get crystal clear on the differences between the purposes you share with or borrowed from other people and the true purpose that comes from the heart of your existence.
I do appreciate that some people may not consciously know their purpose. And that’s okay.
There are many reasons for not knowing our purpose. They include:
- Living other people’s dreams.
- Looking for a career before listening for the calling.
- Too busy trying to become products of our egos.
- Avoid showing your emotional inside.
- Afraid of stepping into uncertainty.
- Afraid or fear of making mistakes.
- Don’t create enough safe spaces.
- Stopped searching for it and given up altogether.
Here’s the thing.
When it comes to our purpose, most of us never discover it because we give up halfway and stop showing up to look for it.
We just give up finding or developing our purpose.
For some, you are already expressing your purpose through your existing activities.
That’s good news.
Do keep on that journey.
Do remember that living and working with a purpose is a process of self-discovery. It is a vehicle, not the destination.
We need to take some calculated risk-taking just doing the things that are out of our comfort zone, to be curious about the world around us, to experiment and experience who we are and our uniqueness, and to discover our purpose along the way.
The experience from the process of self-discovery is your reward. Clarity only comes through the process of exploring and experimentation.