What Is Your Purpose About?
]I was always the different one in my family. My father was a superb internist-cardiologist, my mother a competent and caring registered nurse. My brother, who hero-worshipped Dad, became a doctor as well, specializing in pediatric pulmonology.
Me? I fainted at blood. I thought medicine was gross, and hospitals places of terror. Unlike the rest of my family, I had no scientific leanings, so when I heard the countless stories around the dinner table about botched surgeries, mismanaged medications, or misdiagnosed illnesses, I didn’t see it as a problem to solve. I saw it as a horror movie in my own backyard.
My gifts were writing, and imagination. I wanted to go into theatre. I wanted a world that the three of them couldn’t comprehend – at least not as a career.
I went to college and majored in theatre and creative writing for two years, and dropped out. I thought it was just “for a year so I can get myself together.” Yet I never went back. I wandered in my career, always trying to convince myself “this is what I really want,” while secretly hoping it would be something my family could accept, and I would have some worth and competency in their eyes when I would visit.
I tried being a secretary, working variously for a college textbook firm, a manufacturing company, and several lawyers. I tried my hand at being a copyeditor for magazines. I tested out being a video producer for small companies. I worked as an administrative director and editor for a small publishing house. I found work as a recruiter — a “headhunter” – in of all things, engineering and manufacturing.
And I went to New York City to see if I really could be the actress I’d dreamed of when I was nine.
The sad part was that nothing was fulfilling. I was doing things because I thought I was supposed to, not because I wanted to. I kept looking for the answer to “why am I here?” outside me, rather than really looking inside at my true desires.
Eventually, I took the time to look at my entire life. I searched for those moments, those experiences that brought me the most happiness. I looked at my forty-something years on this earth, with both compassion and objectivity. And I realized that when I am happiest is when I am helping people cross bridges they thought they couldn’t cross, and showing them that they already have wings – and don’t need anyone else’s permission to fly.
That’s when I decided to become a full-time intuitive counselor and teacher. I’ve never looked back. And I’ve never been happier.
There are no shortcuts to discovering your purpose. But once you have, and you’ve claimed it for your own, your purpose is your constant companion: cheering you on, inspiring you, and giving you joy and excitement as you get up every morning