During class we discussed the challenge of committing to a lifework path. Usually when this happens the person has a long list of interests, skills and talents, and continually changes her mind about how to focus her work.

But constantly changing one’s mind can lead to frustration and lack of clients. It’s a common problem; one I’ve faced myself.

Although there are many reasons for this, and therefore many possible solutions, there is one question that might help you if you are experiencing the same dilemma.

Basically it’s this: if you ever having a hard time committing to a lifework path or creating a focus, ask yourself what you are denying or omitting, consciously or unconsciously (of course, the unconscious part may be hard to determine … you may have to ask a friend to help you).

Whenever a client of mine has a hard time focusing, I ask what she’s denying or omitting. There’s usually something.

Over the years, I’ve noticed this pattern occurs mostly with spiritual leaders and healers. Often it has to do with being called to do work that is not culturally recognized; like white Westerners who are called to shamanism or Catholic women who are called to become ordained ministers.

When a person’s inner world doesn’t resonate with the outer world it can cause friction which in turn can result in anxiety, fear and self-doubt. These feelings lead to confusion, which make it difficult to make decisions.

Additionally, when there are no role models for the work you feel called to do, it can take longer to bring it to fruition. Forging new territory is often a laborious process. There are no step-by-step plans. No guidelines. It can take a lot of trial and feedback to find a path that fits you just right.

This is exactly what happened to my client and colleague, Katrina. Awhile ago, I was working with her to help her figure out her lifework path. We had a major breakthrough and she immediately started writing a sales letter and ebook to promote her work on her website.

Within a day or two, though, it became clear something wasn’t quite right. Even though she’s an excellent writer, she didn’t want to write the sales letter or the ebook. It felt like a chore and she just couldn’t get herself to do it.

I immediately suggested the lifework path and ebook topic were off a bit. Sometimes when there is resistance, something’s not aligned.

So, after some self-reflection, Katrina realized the lifework path we’d crafted together was missing one key element, specifically nature, but she wasn’t sure how to integrate it into her work as a shamanic healer.

We discussed her options, and while I listened she had another breakthrough, but this time it was permanent. We could feel the difference.

The result: instead of doing shamanic healings on a massage table inside an office, she’d do them outside, on the earth. She’d work directly with the elements, earth spirits, animals and ancestors to help facilitate the process.

I suggested she call up a few friends and ask who would be willing to be guinea pigs. She did and the results she had were remarkable. In fact, they were quite powerful and you can read about them here.

One of the reasons Katrina had a difficult time creating a lifework focus was because her calling was completely original, at least to us. Although both of us have felt healed by being in nature, neither of us had a role model for earth-facilitated shamanic healings and as a result, it wasn’t part of our conscious thought process.

After she figured it out, though, everything shifted. Within a day she had written all about her new service. She started a different, more creative ebook, called the Dream Divination Kit. It integrates her skills as a photographer, dreamer and nature lover. She wrote it almost effortlessly and is about to go public with it.

Venturing into the Unknown

Many of my clients are in similar positions to Katrina. They have no role models for the work they feel called to bring into the world and as a result, their ideas are somewhat slow in coming to fruition.

Additionally, it’s common for many of my clients’ callings to fall outside modern day paradigms and as a result it takes extra courage to embrace the full scope of their unusual and creative talents.

If you’re experiencing this challenge, my best advice is to reflect on the following questions and see what happens:

What gut instinct might you be ignoring?

Are you being called to something that doesn’t fit with your current understanding of who you are or your projection of who you think society wants you to be?

Are you following the rules when your intuition is telling you to do something else?

If you are having a difficult time committing to a path, it’s entirely likely you’re missing a key element. Find that element and you may find a whole new world opens up to you.

“I’m unsubscribing from your mailing list because I have no idea what my lifework is and at this stage in my life, I will probably never know.”

Honestly, this email broke my heart.

I could feel her pain, her deep sadness. It reminded me so much of the frustration I felt before I figured out what my lifework was, and it also reminded me of the feelings many of my clients have before we start working together.

It can be so disheartening to want to share your gifts and talents with the world, yet have no idea how to really make it happen.

I emailed this woman back to let her know that for the past year I’ve been diligently working on creating a program to help people have and grow meaningful lifework, and in this program I’m including a free video series to help service providers get started and go deeper.

I’ve talked about this project a few times in my ezine, and promised to launch it soon. Well, it’s taking me far longer to complete than I ever imagined it would, but the end is drawing nearer and I’m pretty sure I’ll be done sooner rather than later.

Anyway, just wanted to give you a heads up about the free video series I’m working on in case you or someone you know is struggling to have and grow meaningful lifework. It will hopefully be done soon, but I’m not going to commit to a particular date because I’ve learned not to do that (!).

But in the meantime, if you’re feeling disheartened, like you don’t know how to find a lifework theme or how to grow it, I am available for one-on-one sessions.

To figure out what your lifework is, I suggest the Lifework Orientation session.

To get help putting together a growth plan, I suggest the Attract Clients session.

Also, if you need a website, I have a brand new – very, very low cost – web service which I haven’t even announced yet because I’ve been so focused on finishing my other project.

OK. That’s it for today.

I hope you are well, loving your lifework and enjoying helping people in your own way.

And remember, if you need help, that’s why I’m here.

If you’re not sure what type of help you need, we can chat to figure it out. Just email me (amy@amybrucker.com) and we can set up a time to talk.

What does it take to feed a village (or just yourself?)

Imagine you’re a hunter and your role is to feed an entire village.

What would you do?

Would you aimlessly shoot your arrow into a forest and hope to hit something?

Would you go about your day and assume an animal would present itself to you, simply saying, “Here I am. Go ahead and shoot.”

If you did this your village would starve!

Instead, you’d carefully prepare for your hunt.

You’d pray and ask for guidance.

You’d take time to discover where the deer live, and how and when to find them.

Then you’d gather your hunting party and venture off toward your destination.

Each step of the way you’d remain focused on one thing, deer.

You’d look for prints.

Look for scat (ok. Deer poop.)

You’d look for any imaginable sign of deer.

And when you spotted what you were looking for, you’d remain still and silent, keeping your eye on your prey the entire time.

Then you might move along slowly in order to get closer.

Or perhaps you’d quickly draw your bow and arrow.

Whatever you’d do, you’d be sure to shoot straight.

In other words, you’d shoot to kill.

Those were the instructions I was given in my dream. Essentially, in the dream an elder shaman sits me down for a vision quest and says, “When the first animal arrives, shoot to kill.”

The first animal to show up was one of my animal spirit guides whose mission it is to help me with my soul purpose. Needless to say, I plan to take the dream seriously. I will approach my lifework like a hunter

How to “Shoot to Kill” Your Soul Purpose

Shooting to kill may sound like a violent approach to growing lifework, but the metaphor is really about transforming.

Transforming ideas into real live services (or products, classes, books, etc.).

Transforming services into income.

Transforming income into sustenance (food, clothing, shelter … books).

The goal in “shooting to kill your soul purpose” is to define your mission, pay attention and then act.

How to Define Your Mission

Question: What is the overall purpose or theme for your lifework?

Mine is helping women retrieve lost parts of themselves so they can more easily take their work into the world. There are many ways I do this, through counseling, web design, marketing, dream work, etc.

When you define your mission or purpose or intention, you give yourself boundaries you can use to stay focused. The more focus you have, the easier it is to pay attention to what will help you and what will get in your way.

How to Pay Attention

When the hunter hunts, she does not lose sight of her goal. She stays alert, with all of her senses – sight, sound, touch, smell, taste and intuition – in a fully awakened mode.

As you go about your daily affairs, notice what’s happening around you. Every interaction, every thought, every idea may carry clues about what you intend to create.

Question: What meaningful coincidences capture your attention?

Question: What idea-flutters might be an indication that you need to shift direction? Hint: an “idea-flutter” is idea that continually pops into your mind, but one you brush aside in order to focus on more “important” things. Don’t dismiss those flutters…they are often hugely significant.

How to Act on Purpose

When it comes to lifework, shooting to kill is a metaphor about focusing solely on your theme or mission, not necessarily on one project. In other words, I’m not suggesting you work on one project from beginning to end before you start another one.

Instead, it’s helpful to work where the energy moves you, which may mean working on one project today and another one tomorrow. But only work on projects that are aligned with your mission. It will make your life flow more easily.

Hint: if you are asked to work on projects that support other people’s missions and purposes, reflect on your purpose and mission statement in order to assess whether or not you want to take on the project.

Question: What projects are you currently engaged in that are aligned with your purpose or mission?

Question: What projects are not in alignment with your purpose or mission? How does this impact your lifework?

Here’s a summary of all the questions in this post:

Question: What is the overall purpose or theme for your lifework?

Question: What meaningful coincidences capture your attention?

Question: What idea-flutters might be an indication that you need to shift direction?

Question: What projects are you currently engaged in that are aligned with your purpose or mission?

Question: What projects are not in alignment with your purpose or mission? How does this impact your lifework?

Feel free to share in the comments section below.

Want to learn more

If you’re interested in learning more about how working with dreams and spirit guides to grow your lifework, stay tuned for more information.

In the next day or two I’ll let you know about a program I’m offering called the Dream Compass. It’s one part dream group and one part mastermind, and I guarantee there is nothing like this in existence and it is going to be FUN, FUN, FUN!

In the meantime, hop on over to The DreamTribe (my other site) and read another article inspired by the same dream. It focuses on the 3 Types of Dreams That Guide Your Lifework

To get started, I invite you to reflect on the following:

Who were your ancestors?

What did they stand for?

What did they do in their lifetime?

Are there any behavioral or vocational patterns that are carried from generation to generation?

Frank Padelford, my great, great grandfather

These are interesting questions to contemplate, especially when viewed through the lens of someone who yearns to make their lifework more meaningful.

Why?

Because what if you and your calling are partly the culmination of the experiences of every single person who made you – your parents, grandparents, great grandparents, etc. – all the way back to the beginning of human history?

Or at the very least, what if your life has been deeply influenced by the stories and personalities of the generations that came before you? And by “stories” I mean tales of the “olden days” but also the simple day-to-day events that shape a family.

Add to this your personal experiences, your soul’s desires, your unique gifts and talents, and you might realize that you are the expression of something ancient and new, simultaneously.

In other words, we are all unique, yet filled with an unseen, unknown history that colors and informs our uniqueness.

Considering this, I invite you to contemplate the notion that you inherited more than eye coloring from your ancestors. You may have also inherited talents, patterns or compulsions that cannot be easily explained, but hold clues to your calling.

Let me give you an example from my own life:

I often feel a need to create something unique, or be on the cutting edge of new and exciting ventures. I can’t really explain it, other than to say it’s strong and constant.

I also have a very odd, deep seated feeling of being a warrior, even if the only war I ever fight is a spiritual battle within my Self. This feeling makes no logical sense, but it is there nonetheless.

Additionally, I have an obsession with spirituality and finding ways to connect more thoughtfully and more meaningfully with the Divine.

And even though I have been conscious of these feelings for decades, it wasn’t until I started reflecting on my ancestral lineage that I began to wonder if I’d actually inherited some of these traits from my ancestors.

Of course, if you want to get totally “woo-woo”, you might say my soul chose to incarnate into this lineage because it perfectly aligns with my soul’s desires.

Regardless, I am a true American “mutt” with ancestors who come from Norway, Scotland, England, Wales, Germany, France and Romania, of both Christian and Jewish lineages.

But it is my British Isles ancestors who interest me most. Perhaps because I can trace them back to the 14^th century, thanks to my grandparents and others from the same lineage.

This particular line is filled with pioneers, warriors, and deeply religious people whose religious tradition went against the cultural norms of the day.

They were Normans, Celts, and Anglo-Saxons – invaders and the invaded.

Ona Lysne Padelford, my great, great grandmother

They were pilgrims, traveling to a new world in search of religious freedom.

They were pioneers, frontiersmen who always lived on the edge of developed and undeveloped territories in the early days of this country.

Additionally, on the North American continent they fought in nearly every battle and war imaginable from the 1650’s to WWII.

What does this mean for me? I won’t go into details, but I will say that it perfectly parallels the deep seated feelings that drive me.

So the question today is:

Does your ancestral lineage hold keys that can help you grow somewhere great?

What does all of this mean for you?

If you don’t have access to ancestral research, reflect instead on your parents’, or even your grandparents’ lives.

What did/do they stand for?

What did they do, or what are they doing now?

These are questions I ask my clients when they have a Lifework Orientation session with me. After exploring the answers, my clients often make interesting and inspiring connections between their lives and the lives of those who walked before them.  It’s a little bit like finding a puzzle piece for your life puzzle.

Of course, if you’re adopted you may know nothing about your blood relations. If this is the case, you can reflect on your adopted lineage. For many people, their adopted family feels more significant than their biological lineage.

Wherever you find information, there are clues you can investigate that may give you insight about who you are and how you can add more spice to your lifework.

You may find pathways or doors you didn’t know existed. Doors that can lead you on journeys of the soul, journeys into deeper expressions of your purpose for being.

Or you may be blessed with hindsight. You can reflect on the lives of those who walked before you, choose to infuse your life with the spirit of their intention, yet learn from their mistakes.

Also, if your ancestors were persecuted for their beliefs you may find that you have inherited a resistance to taking your work into the world for fear that you, too, may be persecuted. The thing is, you may be completely unaware of the persecution. Regardless, the emotions and experiences are passed down through your DNA. They are as much a part of you as your eye color. In situations like this there may be ancestral memories you need to heal before you can live fully and fluidly in this lifetime.

Furthermore, there may be great gifts you’ve inherited that are lying dormant in the depths of your being.

To find out what’s waiting for you, reflect on the past decade or so of your life and notice if there are any unnamable stirrings that weave their way throughout your days, weeks, or years.  Look for a feeling or pull toward something, maybe even a vague notion that dwells in your heart.

Listen to your dreams. They often carry insight into ancestral memory.

You might even create an ancestral altar, a tradition that has roots in nearly every culture. This will help you remember and connect with your ancestors. You can put their photos on a table, light a candle in their memory, and imagine having conversations with them.

Whatever you do, remember that you are more than you. You are also the collective memories, stored in your DNA and shared in story, of all those who walked before you.

When you embark on an ancestral journey and use this information to your advantage, you may find that you have more impetus for growing somewhere great.

Who were your ancestors?

What have you inherited from them?

How can you use this in your lifework?

I don’t know about you, but the more intentional I am about creating lifework I love, the more I realize how easy it is to fool myself into thinking small. This happens every time I second guess a Big Dream and end up with a whittled down version of my original idea.

Of course, I’m not alone in this. I see other people doing it all the time, especially women.

Sadly, it’s easy to ignore the truth that dwells in our hearts, or feel confused about who we are and what we love to do, especially when what we love does not easily fall into a society-approved, rational or logical category.

But growing great lifework isn’t usually about rational choices. It’s about actively and creatively engaging our soul’s longing.

So how do you know what your soul longs for?One of the best ways to hear your soul’s yearning is to pay attention to your sleeping dreams. Not only can dreams help you solve problems, they can also help you make a more meaningful life.

You may even have your own personal mythology brewing, complete with guides who are showing you exactly how to infuse your life with joyful work.

The only way to know for sure, though, is to review your old dream journals and look for repeating or meaningful themes and imagery.

If you haven’t kept a dream journal, now is the perfect time to start.

If you don’t remember your dreams, click here to learn ways that you can.

I share this with you because a few days ago I decided to examine twenty years worth of my dreams. In the process I discovered a growing personal mythology that has woven its way throughout my life.

One of the more notable themes I’ve stumbled upon is of me drumming, leading and witnessing rituals and ceremonies, and even studying with shamans.

Up until now I’ve kept this deeper aspect of my work separate from the work I do in helping women grow their lifework.

But as I reviewed my dream journals, I realized it’s time for all of these pieces to come together. I’m currently in the process of creating a new program that will incorporate deep soul work with growing lifework.

So, as I let these ideas percolate in my mind, I encourage you to reflect on the longings of your own soul.

Are you engaging your soul’s desire in your work in a big way or a little way?

What are your dreams trying to tell you?

Are you listening?

One more thing…

Souls have longings on many levels. Here’s another article I wrote on the subject. This one has to do with ancestral healing, but the more I work with these dreams the more I realize that they, too, are directly related to soulwork and lifework.

Share with us how you hear your soul’s longing by clicking here and leaving a comment on the blog.