Welcome to day 1 of your 5 day challenge. I hope you're as excited as I am for this upcoming week. We are going to start off nice and simple today with a little story about myself and where I struggled to find my direction in life.
Deciding which path to take in life can be a daunting task. For many of us, the search for purpose and passion is an ongoing journey. But what happens when we make decisions that don't seem to be driven by either?
Have you ever found yourself in a situation where you had to pick a direction without any clear sense of purpose or passion?
At the age of 18, I made a decision based on logic and practicality rather than purpose or passion.
My happiest memories were with my Dad at the airport, my father who'd been in aviation his whole career and my brother had a successful career in the RAAF. I loved aircraft with a passion. The love of aviation flowed through my veins just as surely as it flowed through my dad's and my brother's veins, and it seemed to be the most logical decision to join the RAAF (Royal Australian Air Force).
So, I applied for the training and once I passed all the primary testing, I was accepted.
I can't tell you how good it felt to have some direction, and it was great news for my parents too, who were preparing to move over to Singapore.
I won't lie. I can't say these were the happiest days of my life.
I spent much of my time feeling like a round peg in a square hole.
I was young, nervous and totally outside my comfort zone. Three days into my training in Victoria, I suffered a painful injury – Achilles Tendonitis! From there I hit multiple obstacles. I was on the sidelines of my unit for half of my training making it harder to be and feel ‘included’. Then while I was fortunate enough to pass my basic training, I was then bumped not once, but twice on my specialty training. This made me feel left behind and the people I had been training with moved ahead. It was a case of nothing during this period was ‘flowing’. Despite this I decided to hang in there and see it through. However, after 18 months of delays, bump backs and holding patterns and being in “Survival Mode” I was asked to leave.
And boy did that HURT! I had failed, failed myself and let down my family. I felt shame, guilt and embarrassment and my self-esteem and confidence took a huge beating. My ego was bruised. One thing I didn’t do was let it stop me. Even before the official date came for my discharge, I was already lining up some new training and a new path - TEACHING. Another thing that inspired me from a young age. I had to accept the fact that the Air Force was not for me nor was it my calling. The years following my departure from the Air Force have provided me with so much insight and wisdom. One of the pieces I did work on was understanding the aspect of failure.
Failure is a curious thing, isn’t it? From Spirit's perspective failure is not always failure as we define it. Is it possible you have learned something or succeeded in something else entirely? Sometimes failure can highlight something we do not want in our life.
Clearly this was not my path. I had taken a wrong turn and now it was time to find a new direction.
The thing is that there are always breadcrumbs, hints and clues that we are being shown, but we are focused on surviving and proving ourselves (to ourselves or others) that sometimes we will miss these clues completely. Then Spirit and Universe will step in to help us get back to our true path, passion and purpose.
Now, if any of this relates to you, here is a quick exercise I would like you to do.
TODAY’S TASK:
Stop and write down all the things you are doing in your career. (eg: the duties, roles and responsibilities).
When you look at them, how do they make you feel? Excited? Blessed that you have the job and do the work you do? Perhaps it simply causes you stress just thinking about it. What things are working for you and what things are not? Do you feel empowered or disempowered? Simply by looking at these things it will give you clues as to whether you are living your best life. I’m curious, how did you go? I would love to hear what you have come up with.
Pop your answers in the private Facebook Mentoring Group with as much detail as you feel comfortable sharing. This will also help keep you in the draw to win a 30min mentoring phone call with me. Remember this is a private group and only those in the group will see your posts.
CLICK HERE to access the group.
Always in your corner,
Peter
PS: We can happily discuss this in person on the Mentoring Zoom, on Saturday. If you haven't registered yet, CLICK HERE to do so now.
Please note: Zooms are capped at 100 attendee's so please be sure to register and join early so you don't miss out on your spot.
