I’m thrilled to connect you all with a dear friend, Amber of Mama B Ramblings. Amber and I have been friends for years and she has been a constant supporter, encourager and dream builder for me and many other women. Her energy is contagious and she makes everybody feel like a somebody. Amber’s vision and passion are like nothing I’ve seen before and this is just the start of our future collaborations. I know you’ll love what she has to say about finding your true calling. Enjoy my friends!
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Why was I put here on this earth?
Have you ever thought about that? ….ahhh yeah, me either. It never once crossed my brain. However, I have figured this much out: our calling is not our individual purpose. Your dreams, the reason why you do things, is not your calling that is your purpose. For example, I want to do this side hustle because I want to earn income to pay off debt or travel the world. What is your purpose for doing this? We aren’t talking about that. I’m talking about your purposeful calling. I had to take the word purpose (as I knew it) and completely separate it from calling. That was a huge shift for me.
You ever feel so stuck in life? Like everything you do feels daunting, or unmanageable, and just plain hard. That is where I was until I made these two words like oil and water. The dreams I have for my life are like wishes that my heart makes or wants. Think of it this way, those are things we wish will be fruitful in our life at some point. I’m not saying dreams are bad, I have dreams too – I have a long list of dreams – like own a beach front property where I can sit my hiney down under my umbrella when I’m in my 50s and not move with my best gal pals drinking our pina coladas. We have to remember that dreams are not guarantees or promises. But your calling, that is rock solid. It is so strong and the absolute single thing you were placed on this earth for. It isn’t going anywhere.
I loved the way this was written out in 100 Days to Brave by Annie F. Downs:
” Your calling is the cash in the bank; your dreams are all the ways you can come up with spending that cash”.
I was building my life around dreams. My vision board while it’s great, made me feel inadequate. Failure that isn’t ever going to achieve them. I started building my life around my calling since January and it’s changed everything.
Here is the thing though: you, yes you, the one that has made it this far on this post, you only have one calling. One. Uno. So how do you know what it is?! I want to share with you what I did, to help bring clarity and focus for myself.
1. I wrote down all my dreams, a mile long list of all the things I have swirling around in my brain. Grab a notebook and start writing. This allowed me to clear my brain. What a beautiful thing that is.
2. Write out a thesis statement for your life. What does a thesis statement mean (I needed to look it up, writing and speech class wasn’t my strong suit) it is one sentence that explains the purpose of your topic. It is the single sentence that gives it structure. Need a little direction here? What would you say is the theme of all the jobs, dreams and opportunities you’ve had in your life?
Here is mine: I’m the loud voice to empower women.
It doesn’t say “I am the entrepreneur who wants to make X amount to be able to buy a house in Maui”
3. Understand that the ways you express your calling are different. Your one calling doesn’t have to have ONE expression. There are several pieces that will fit together, like a puzzle. Now I know what you might be thinking, what I am doing is no where near my calling. Here is what you have to remember, we learn through experiences and we gain so much in growth and strength from them. No one goes from realizing their dreams to discovering their calling to getting to do their dream job. My dream job was NOT working at Hooters when I was 18. My dream job was not working at a car dealership. My dream job was not working at a bank. Yes, I worked at Hooters if you’re still on that part. I was young, I learned a lot about myself and we are now moving on from that…yes?!
4. Writing down the top 2 pieces to my calling that bring me the most joy. If I focus on too many things at once my brain goes overload and I move onto the next thing without even giving it a chance. How many times I have done that in my life? I love writing and talking (maaaaybbe I can re-take speech class in high school with Mr. Bennett?). Its one of the biggest ways I can use my voice for women to hear. Eventually I will to turn that into women’s conferences and speaking at high schools to young girls and using my past experiences to be a voice for them. Ironically God called me to this last year and its how I landed my spot in youth group being a leader.
The most beautiful thing about all of this, is that YOU my friend will not have the same calling as someone else. Just like no one else has the same fingerprints. It will be uniquely made and wonderfully thought out just for you. So while God put so much time into thinking how wonderful He is going to make you, and what He has placed you here on this earth to do. It will take many quite space moments for you to really dig into what that is. So don’t be frustrated if it hasn’t come to you yet, or if you didn’t get it by the end of this post.
But always remember, STILL I RISE and you WILL.
Grey Space
WOW