I’d like to expand a bit on the first stage of The Hero’s Journey when you realize that you no longer want to live in The Ordinary World and hear The Call for Adventure.
This is when you live your life on purpose and choose to walk your own path instead of following someone else’s footsteps.
It could be when you decide to leave the job that weighs you down or stifles your creativity.
It could be when you decide to let go and stop resisting change so that you can embrace it.
Or it could be something completely different. When you feel The Call to Adventure, it’s a sound only you can hear.
And it’s up to you to listen.
This morning I decided to re-read one of my favorite books by Pema called Living Beautifully.
Pema Chodron gives a beautiful analogy for what it’s like when you experience something you’ve never even known existed.
Pema needed cataract surgery — perhaps a surgery your parents like mine have gone through. After her eye surgery, she began to see colors and the mountain view like she never saw it before. Meer words could not accurately describe the expansiveness of beauty that she now saw.
Until then, she said, “she didn’t realize how limited her vision had been.”
This metaphor pretty accurately describes what Buddhists have described as being awake or enlightened.
All Buddhist stuff aside, I think this also accurately describes the feeling once you start living your life on purpose and with intention — moving toward the direction you aspire to go.
Many of the people I’ve interviewed who have quit their mundane job to work for themselves have had a similar new vision. Many say that they didn’t realize how unhappy they really were with their work beforehand.
Ayelet Baron is my favorite example of this. Ayelet is the former Chief of Strategy for Cisco Canada. Not the silver haired rapping Sisco or the food-producing company called Sysco. I’m talking about the technology company that’s based in Silicon Valley and pulls in 50 billion in revenue each year. Talk about a huge company.
Ayelet chose to fire herself from her corporate job because she saw how mentally, physically, and emotionally draining it became.
While her daily routine of flying all over the world may have looked adventurous, she grew tired of living out of a suitcase and in hotel rooms.
After choosing to work for herself, she had a realization.
She said, “When did we lose humanity to such a degree that we define ourselves by how we make a living.”
Now, I’m not saying go quit your job and everything will be all perfect in your life. No, there are plenty of amazing companies out there that need your help. You don’t need to be an entrepreneur to live your life on purpose. The world needs teachers, airplane pilots, and any other number of important more traditional salaried-based jobs.
Having A New Vision lies in living authentically to your truest self. Dig Deep. Be Real. That is real courage.
And, even though I’m not a full-time entrepreneur yet, I can tell you that it’s a lot easier to work a job that has set hours and a weekly paycheck.
For instance, when I sat down to plan this post, I was reading Pema Chodron’s book Living Beautifully and thought how peaceful it would be to just live like a monk for a while. Meditate, look at the leaves, write and repeat.
But, then if I were to do that, I wouldn’t get this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to connect with you. Which, by the way, over 20,000 people a month are tuning into Your Life on Purpose and the number is growing. How awesome is that!?
So, what about you? There are plenty of moments where we are able to see anew with a whole new set of eyes. When have you experienced a new vision and saw something so beautiful you didn’t even know existed beforehand?
And yes, that includes when you meet your significant other. I know when I met my wife Kaitlyn, I felt such a surge of energy inside my heart and I felt such beauty that I’ve never felt before meeting her.