Do you know what you are meant to do with your life and work? Is what you’re currently doing what you know you are meant to do? In this episode, Jeff Goins shares his story of leaving a comfortable life to step into what he was made to do which, ultimately, led him to a life of purpose. In this episode, Jeff shares with us the 7 elements found on the path of discovering your calling from his book, The Art of Work.
Listen: Apple | Spotify | Google | Stitcher | iHeart | More Options
Discovering What You Were Meant to Do with Jeff Goins:
In this episode, Alex and Jeff Goins go over the 7 points of discovering what you were meant to do.
First, let’s see why Jeff wrote his book “The Art of Work”.
He kept getting questions on how he quit his full-time job and became a writer, so he wrote a book on how he did it. But, the book didn’t sit right so he began to reach out to people and asked who they knew who were doing their life’s work and achieving their purpose. He then interviewed hundreds of people who had said they were living their life’s purposed and found their calling. He paid attention to things they had in common, one thing was the path to their life’s work surprised them. He realized that this was true for him also. If there is one overarching theme to the book it is that this is a path, it’s not a highway or a perfect plan, it is a path that winds and twists and turns – your life’s journey is to navigate this path and discover why you are here.
7 common elements found along the way in the journey of discovering what you are meant to do.
#1 Awareness – Listening to your life.
Finding your purpose doesn’t just happen once, it happens over the course of your life, it is a constant unfolding of understanding of who you are and what you’re here to do. Responding to your calling starts with listening to your life. There is some sense that you are here to do something. It starts with feeling like something is off, you may not know what you are here to do but you know it’s not what you are doing right now. Awareness is all about understanding who you are and your calling will unfold from there.
Ask yourself – who am I really? Am I the job that I’ve done the last 15 years?
#2 Accidental Apprenticeships
We live in an age where everyone wants to be a master, but no one is willing to be an apprentice first. The accidental apprenticeship is when you realize that you have people around you that are already masters at the craft that you are wanting to be a master at. It becomes intentional when you decide that you can learn from them.
#3 Painful Practice
It isn’t just about putting 10,000 hours in but putting in 10,000 deliberate hours. You must pursue deliberate practice and push yourself into discomfort. It is about working with a teacher and pushing past the point of exhaustion and giving so many hours and so much effort. Push yourself in an activity that you think could be your life’s work and see how much you enjoy it on those long days and see if you still love it, and if not celebrate it and move on!
Here’s how to discover purpose and meaning for your life.
#4 Building Bridges Instead of Taking Leaps
There is this transitional process of moving from one kind of work to another and more often than not it is better to build a bridge than leap. You can take a leap you could fall flat on your face and fail, if you build a bridge you are using the experiences and knowledge from before and leveraging those into the next season of work. It doesn’t have to be all or nothing, it can be gradual.
– Michael Hyatt say’s that you are 30% more likely to succeed if you use the building a bridge method instead of taking a leap!
#5 Pivot Points
This is about failure.
“Failure is not an option, it’s an opportunity”
When it happens, you have to decide what to do with it. Moments of failure are pivot points, these are opportunities to change course, learn, course correct and go in a different direction.
The year 2020 is a great example of having disappointments and needing to pivot. You don’t just jump over an obstacle or knock it over you have to work with them or around them. The obstacle can become the means of how you go and the way you go.
#6 Portfolio Life
Mastery of your life’s work, realizing that this can be multiple things and not just one thing. Jeff found that his calling is not one thing but a portfolio of things and how his work integrates with the rest of his life is all apart of it. It is not just about being a writer but being a writer, a dad, a good, neighbor, and a friend. You are not just one thing; you are many things! Mastery is how you integrate your work into the rest of your life.
“Don’t be a master of one or a jack of all trades; become a master of some.”
#7 Legacy
Legacy is “what do I want to leave behind?”. Is your work just about you or is it about more than you? Legacy is not about ego or being remembered. Legacy is about what you leave behind, where your work goes on for lifetimes after you are gone and affects other people.
Jeff Goin’s final thought:
If you don’t know what your life’s work is, good. Join the crowd. Most people don’t know. Trust the feeling of there is more in life that what you have to know. Listen to yourself and wonder what else is there? What else can I do? There is always more, you are not done until you are dead.
“Clarity comes with action so just take the next step!”
Resources Mentioned in this Episode:
▶ Read the book: The Art of Work
▶ Hear more from Jeff: Extra 20 minutes
(This poll is now closed.)