You may have noticed the world is waking up. More and more people are starting to ask the question ‘isn’t there more to my life than this?’ Deep down there is a yearning in all of us to find out what we came here for – who we are, what we do with the time we have and what we truly want.
Over the last 2 years, I have spoken to dozens of people who have had a feeling that they were ‘destined for great things’, some have had that sense for decades, yet nothing ‘grand’ has happened in their lives to match the feeling. This has caused them to question themselves, feel disillusioned at times, as they can’t quite piece together their ‘purpose’.
What Is Destiny?
The common definition of ‘life purpose’ or ‘destiny’ can be misleading. To me, it comprises three parts: your gifts, your desires and your challenges. This means that who you are – your soul’s identity combined with your human identity – IS your destiny. Your destiny is what you do best, combined with what you want and what challenges you most. It is certainly not the holy grail where all challenges dissolve into love and light. There is a shadow aspect to destiny and this is where the true mastery lies.
Why Master Your Destiny?
When you cooperate with your soul, you open up to receive a flood of additional energy to fuel your path. Your soul already has a plan for you in this life; it knows what it wants to contribute and what it wants to learn – this is what I call your destiny. Aligning with your destiny has a snowball effect: over time, as you cooperate with what your soul wants for you, you gain power and strength, like feeding a tree what it needs to develop strong roots; it will eventually flourish and bear fruit year after year.
If you sidestep your destiny (like many do), you miss out on this additional energy and you face greater resistance on your path as you go against your natural flow.
Where To Begin?
Mastering your destiny begins with identifying your natural gifts – what you inherently know how to do well, often without thinking. Each of us is designed to have a unique impact on the world around us; when we are awake to the impact we can and do have, and consciously focus on enhancing this gift, we become masters of our destinies.
1. Name Your Gifts
What are your top 5 most prominent gifts?
We each have many traits that form our identities, yet the ones that truly matter are the most prominent ones – the gifts that continually show up in our lives day after day. When it comes to mastery, it is not possible to master them all with the energy that we have, so we need to focus our attention on the ones that will yield the greatest reward. To do this, we need to put our gifts into words, as the words themselves are our way of saying ‘more of this please’; our minds become oriented towards those traits as being of primary importance. If you have trouble identifying your natural gifts, as the people you work with, your friends and family and see what they notice most about you.
2. Identify & Work With Their Opposites
How does your gift challenge you?
Every gift has a challenge, a pattern that you need to overcome in order to access the full potential of the gift. In other words, your gifts will show up as recurring resistant or challenges to help you better understand and apply the gift. For example, if one of my gifts is creativity, the challenge may be to funnel my creative energy and ensure that it doesn’t get blocked. So the challenge may show up as feeling frustrated or stuck, which I must learn to master in order to access the gift.
3. Practise Applying Them Daily
How will you turn your gift into a skill?
To become a master at anything, you need to practice – the more time you focus on channeling your gifts, the more you come to understand what they are, your actual potential, and the range of ways in which they can be applied. For example, I use my gift of insight to help others see their own gifts in my work, which means I am consciously refining this gift week after week.
4. Quantify / Qualify Their Impact
What is the impact of your gift?
As you apply your gifts in different situations, notice what happens. How do people respond? How does the situation change? What are the benefits you or they experience? Sometimes the benefits may be measured – for example, if I apply my creativity to design an innovative kitchen appliance, the benefits may be reduced water usage, cleaning time or service costs. And in other scenarios, the benefits are harder to quantify – for example, if I apply my gift of wisdom to help a person connect with his purpose and potential, the benefits for him may be greater clarity, confidence, and possibly an improvement in overall health. You don’t have to be paid for your gifts to quantify or qualify their impact, but doing so will help you to learn from what works well and what doesn’t.
5. Close The Loop
How do you want to receive appreciation for what you give?
Gift mastery is made possible through giving and receiving; we must receive some sort of recognition for our gifts in order to reach the next level of mastery. Receiving acknowledgement for our gifts allows us to stoke our internal and external resources to not only continue giving them, but to feed our sense of personal power and self-actualisation. Recognition can come in many forms – verbal acknowledgement, gifts or money. You may also choose the form of recognition you desire and ask for it. What matters is that you are open to receiving the recognition. The energy you are consciously giving in the form of your gifts is returned to you, provided you are open to receiving.
A Master Has A Strategy
Gift mastery is a lifelong process – the key is to do it consciously; to know WHAT your are mastering and HOW. Successful people know what their gifts are and they are consciously using them to help themselves and others. What will you do with your gifts and how will you be recognized for them?
Your destiny begins with your Soul Business Blueprint…
The Soul Business Blueprint program, a 6-week journey to designing a business from your soul’s calling. The next program starts on 8th June. Click here for details.