What makes you light up like a little kid on Christmas morning?
Do you need a minute?
While you’re thinking, let me tell you a little story…
Recently, I spent the afternoon doing some mini readings (psychic readings) on a Facebook group. People would post their photo and I’d share whatever brief download Spirit gave me. Doing this, I learned two incredibly important things:
1) I LOVE sharing downloads from Spirit! 2) At least 90% of the gals who shared their images had forgotten what their sparkle was! Seriously. I got bombarded with questions about “what should I be doing?” These gals had seriously lost their passion, and didn’t know if they should be making career shifts, or giving up, or even what path they should be walking. They forgot what made them joyful.
It occurred to me that it must be a theme — us grown ups who once sprang from our beds in the mornings, ready to start the day, hearts afire…we lose our sparkle. Granted, those were the enthusiastic mornings of childhood, when we believed anything was possible. But when exactly did we stop believing that?
We end up in jobs that don’t touch our hearts, we end up watching the clock all day, waiting for a better time to magically appear on the dial. Drats! Who wants to live like that? I can tell you that if you ARE living like THAT…you don’t have to. Spirit has your back, and your universal birthright is joy. Yes, your birthright.
I have been guilty of identifying with my career, let’s say…too much. I had worked my tail off to earn these impressive job titles, and I wanted some external recognition for my awesomeness. I mean, wasn’t my awesomeness totally obvious when I shoved my impressive business card (with impressive title) into their hands? (I am cringing as I type this.)
So here’s part deux of this lifestyle: when you get downsized and suddenly the person on that business card doesn’t exist anymore.
The human, me, I still existed. But that business card was now fit for the recycle bin. And because I was so wrapped up in what was on that card, I sort of felt like I was in the bin, too. Who the hell was I, if I wasn’t “that” title?
I’ll tell you what I discovered through my job blowing up (oh, and there wasn’t just the one!), I figured out that my job title mattered not at all. My children, my mate, my friends, my pets, the kids I volunteered with…they did not identify me by what was on my business card. All they cared about was how I treated them. That’s how they knew me. Really, that’s who I was. Not the title I held.
I was raised in an achiever household — you had to prove your worth in order to exist. What a load of horse shit. I don’t have to prove anything to anyone. I exist. I am enough. That’s all another story, but that kind of gunk is what leads to us being defined by the external…and that leads to us feeling lost with the internal!
So, what are we to do when we feel lost, or when we have no idea how we’re ever going to jump out of bed with enthusiasm, again? You can meditate. You can journal. You can do some cool workshops. Or you could take about 3 minutes and pull out a notepad and write down every job you wanted as a kid. Yes, I realize now that Queen of Iceland was a sort of unrealistic career choice.
Write down, without editing, the jobs you thought were cool when you were younger. Then, more importantly write down WHY you thought they were cool. Because the WHY is what you’re after. (You can pretty much assume that you’re always after the WHY, all the time. But you’ll figure that out, you’ll see the pattern, soon.)
I am not suggesting you have to change careers, or move, or leave or start a relationship. You might want those things, you might not. But the fastest way to uncover what will make you happy is to dive into the WHY. Remember what excited you once, and then focus on the WHY of the excitement.
- “Made me feel good.”
- “Loved the rush of it.”
- “I enjoy helping people.”
- “I felt invincible.”
- “Creativity energizes me.”
Start there. Guess what? You didn’t lose your sparkle. You just identified it. Now, go after the sparkle. The feeling. Follow the feeling. And don’t give me a lists of why you can’t possibly do it…because I promise you, when you have a solid intention, an unwavering decision that this will bring joy into your heart, the Universe will move mountains to help you achieve it.
Aren’t you surrounded by nay-sayers, out there — in the outside world? We all know someone who no matter what the topic is, they’ll find 37 ways to tear it down, or point out the weak spots, or just nag the hell out of it, and basically kill the joy. Don’t be that person. Not in your own life. Not to yourself.
Think about what it feels like to feel that enthusiasm in your heart
– and go find and do and be that.
