5 quick tips to leaning into your calling and finding true happiness.
Ahhh, to be a kid in the summer again.
Kids have happiness figured out, don’t they? They don’t over complicate it with reason, or over analyze options, they lean into what they know will bring them joy and happiness follows — in fact it often bursts at the seams and it’s contagious.
I’ve been doing a lot of purpose searching as of late (hello, word of the year — Purposeful — we meet again)...especially in the past 3.5 years of being a mom, as I feel this constant unrelenting desire to confirm my purpose in “what I do” outside of momming, because I need to confirm that anything taking away from my job as a mom is worth the time.
I decided to channel my inner toddler — since my boys seem to have happiness and life figured out — and just do what makes me happy; but I had to first identify what makes me happy. What makes you happy?
It’s taken me the greater part of a year to really start to answer this question for myself honestly. It started with a call out to my best gals for podcast/book recs (ladies, you probably remember the email, from June 2019). Since that time I’ve been getting closer to my purpose and finding happiness in “what I do”.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m still on the road to recovery from doing the things I SHOULD be doing with my life, vs. what I MUST, but I know I’m moving in the right direction.
I absorbed some things this week that are helping my purpose search that might help yours too:
Watch “The Crossroads of Should & Must” TedTalk by @ElleLuna, and dial in your thoughts on “Job” vs. “Career” vs. “Calling”; read her book and article on Medium here.
Ask your toddler-self what made you happy and what you were good at, before the world skewed your reality on what you could/couldn’t be good at. Take #TheBadassWorkshop with @BadassBoz (details here).
Call your Mom, ask her to tell you what you were like as a kid. Listen to the interview with Jess Sims, Peloton Instructor (@JSimsFiton) on #TheHurdlePodcast Episode #121 with @EmilyAbbate (find it here).
Make a list of what activities in your daily life (work & personal) make you happy. Here's a few from mine: an excellent cup of hot coffee, conversations with my toddlers, the smell of fall, airplane snacks, the stillness of and free thinking at 5 AM.
Stop everything and take your kids out for ice cream. Do something completely simple and joyful, and marinate in it. It's important to be reminded of how good good can feel, and how it doesn't need to be complicated!
Life is too short to waste time in a job/career/situation/ANYWHERE that doesn’t make you happy.
What’s your calling?
xx, Danielle