We often hear that traveling around the world can help someone to find his/her calling. This premise makes so much sense because traveling allows us to know new things that help us determining our calling. This makes thousands youths all over the world save their money to travel around the world.
Being curious with this premise, I took my saving and made a small trip. Honestly I loved my trip so much! I had great conversation with new people I met, saw the part of the world I have not seen before, and had some crazy experience.
But at the end of the trip I realized one thing......
I was too busy enjoying my trip and did not even allocate a single second to think about my calling.
Then I asked to myself whether I needed to quit my full time job and travel around the world for a longer period, a year perhaps. Taking that option means that I have to leave my work, miss the chance to deepen my area of interest, and loss all the savings I have. I thought about other way that potentially could help me and finally I found it.
I completely understand that finding calling is a very personal journey so what works for me may not work for you and vice versa. If these pieces of advises ring a bell in your head, then I'm happy for you. If they don't, I suggest you to find other resources that might be more relevant to your context. Having said that, let me share a bit about what I did to help me finding my life calling.
1. Do a self reflection in a peaceful state of mind
We live in the world that is full of distractions ranging from our daily activities, mobile applications, internet, etc. This situation makes us unable to take a step back and mindfully think properly. This is a bit ironic because we tend to allocate more time to think about things that are less important, such as choice of food or clothes and forget to think about something more important, our calling.
In order to get the best of self reflection, we should find a place where we are not distracted by anything and anyone. Turning off our mobile phone might be necessary to clear out our mind and stay focus on our reflection. We don’t have to spend too much time, one or two hours should be enough. It would be up to you on what you want to reflect but there are questions that I asked to myself that helped me to find my calling. Those questions are:
Goal: Know myself
What are the top 3 lesson I have ever got in my life?
What are my top 3 strengths?
What is an ideal life for me?
Goal: Know where I’m heading to
What is the world problem I want to solve?
On a smaller scale, how does that problem look like?
Goal: Know how to get there
What is my plan to solve that problem for the next 1, 3, and 5 years?
What are the changes I’m going to make soon that will bring me one step closer to solve the problem?
The questions above might be simple but don’t be surprised if you find significant amount of time to figure the answer out (because I faced that too). I even opened google just to see the list of strengths just to make sure that I did not forget any of my strengths (yeah I was struggling to find mine). It’s also common to feel hopeless and frustrated in the middle of the reflection because you could not find satisfying answer. No worries, I have been there before :). If you happen to be on this position, then you should start looking for other source of information.
2. Find out new information from internet and other people
We, millennials, are very lucky to live in the era when information is relatively easy to get. Leverage as many channels as possible starting from online channels. You may start reading articles, downloading e-book, and watching videos in Youtube.
These are some videos that I recommend to help you to find your calling:
Beside online channels, you can also meet people in person. Meet your old friends who are working on the field you are interested in, join new communities, meet your role models, etc. Some of you may be uncomfortable with this but I will cover this topic in one of my future article. On top of everything, this involves stepping out of our comfort zone. It may not be easy in the beginning but one day, you will realize how beneficial and worth it to do this.
3. Step out of your comfort zone slowly
This is the most difficult but most important part to bring you one step closer to your calling. Start with something small where you just need to leave your comfort zone for a bit. For example, if you want to be an author, start writing an article once a week. Do it consistently and one day you will be surprised knowing the fact that you can make a book based on the story that you wrote every week. Don’t forget to reward yourself when you make small wins and remind yourself when you are not doing enough
Since I had better idea about my calling, I feel I have clearer direction on how to make priorities and more energized to undergo my daily activities. Even so, living my calling does not mean that everything will be easy and comfortable. I personally still habituate myself to change a lot of habits that pull me away from my calling and it’s not an easy thing to do.
Finding calling is not an easy thing to do but it’s also not impossible to achieve. Finding calling only needs sense of awareness that it is extremely important and willingness to consistently take actions to bring you closer to that. Albert Einstein is my source of inspiration when it comes to consistency. He says ,”It’s not that I’m so smart. It’s just I stay with problems longer.”