Things You'll Need:
- A willingness to live without fear.
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Step 1
Be Willing.
We think it is hard to follow a calling, to live the lives we imagine, to live with passion and without fear. It is not hard. Once found, a calling is hard to avoid.
The first step is simply to be willing to look beyond all of the barriers that you may feel confine you. To look beyond those barriers takes courage. Sometimes we erect those barriers ourselves out of our own fear of being fully alive.
Are you afraid of what others might think? Are you afraid that you won't be financially secure? Are you afraid that you might fail?
These are the sorts of fears that can hold you back. Sometimes you invent these fears just so that you will not have to risk living passionately.
Your first step is simply this: Be willing to live outside the box created by your own fears. -
Step 2
Know Yourself.
Who are you really? Are you the role you play in society? Are you the work you do? Are you your history, what you have accomplished or all the mistakes you have made? Are you what other people expect of you?
You, the authentic you, is of course none of these. These are the identities that will be to you like a cocoon to a butterfly. You will have to push up against them to liberate yourself; they will provide the resistance you need to strengthen you wings. But they are not you.
You are unique in all of nature. No one may define who you are. No circumstances, no people, no obligations, no history, no failures, no friends, no enemies can define you. You are perpetually becoming the unique individual who you were born to be.
You may be delayed or sidetracked on that adventure, but nothing can ultimately keep you from it against your will.
Choose today to know your authentic self--that individual who is unique in the universe. Begin to notice what inspires and motivates you--what brings you joy. Where your joy is, there your authentic self is too. -
Step 3
Follow Your Joy.
Your joy is the very heart and soul of your authentic individuality. Trust your joy as you might trust a good friend. Your joy will never let you down or forsake you. Joy is the wellspring of the soul that connects you to the big and sacred work of life.
When you follow your joy, you begin to live life purposefully, and without fear. Courageously follow your joy and you will feel stronger and more whole in every aspect of your life.
Your vision of a well-lived life becomes clearer, you become bolder and more confident, your compassion and love for others grows. When you discover your authentic individuality and the potential that is yours and yours alone to make real, you discover the unassailable center of your life.
You discover that center that neither "thief may steal nor moth destroy;" you discover that you feel very much at home in the universe--your universe.
