The Calling of Your Soul
Sometimes, you leave a good thing because you can’t resist the calling in your soul— to pursue the possibility of something even greater.
Your soul calls you out of your own personal Garden of Eden where all your needs are being met and out into the wilderness where all your needs are not going to be met, but… where you can start living your real life.
If you stay where you are, your life will never change. Whatever you have now, is what you will always have.
In your comfort zone or garden where you are kept safe and nurtured, everything is designed to resist change. It’s designed to resist change because that way you can predict what’s going to happen. Yes yes—
You know where to eat, where to sleep, where to work… That’s called management.
Management is making sure nothing ever changes, everything is under control— and everything is predictable. We know exactly when things are going to happen and where. Same thing, same time, same same same. That’s exactly how we want it. It’s reliable.
Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden
The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it.
—Genesis 2:15
Adam and Eve were assigned to manage the garden of Eden. Meaning, don’t change anything. Keep everything the same.
The garden = designed to resist change.
The wilderness = designed to create change.
The wilderness is designed to create change. In the wilderness, nothing is predictable or controllable. It’s unpredictable, uncontrollable— kinda like sex. It’s very random— kinda just happens when there’s a bunch of hormones driving everyone crazy— and you get these very eccentric combinations. You can cross-pollinate this flower with that cactus and you get a purple bumble bee! Anything goes in the wilderness. It’s a big experiment.
You can be or do anything in the wilderness— the potential is really quite limitless.
And that’s the point.
If you want something more or something different than what you have now— the wilderness is your classroom, your laboratory, your studio— to create your soul’s version of yourself. Management’s goal is to keep everything the same. Leadership is about change.
Adam and Eve had to step into their leadership and become leaders in order to thrive in the wilderness. Adam was content being a manager. Eve wanted to be a leader.
My Soul Is Ready
When people ask you why you left home, or you left a good paying job, or you left your marriage, or you left a safe predictable environment where all your needs were being taken care of, you can say—
My ego was content being a manager.
My soul is ready to be a leader.
When you are just managing your life, yes, your short-term, day-to-day needs are being taken care. But when you are leading your life, your long-term, life goals are being taken care of.
Please write that in your journal
Exercise
Now, I’m going to ask you to do an exercise in your journal. I will ask you two questions. Please write the answers in your journal.
- Before the big shift happened in your life, what short-term needs were taken care of for you?
- Now that the big shift is happening, or right after your big shifts happened, what long-term needs are you finally taking care of?
Here’s an example:
The Big Shift: Moving out-of-state to take a new job.
Short term needs of my ego: low rent, job security, mom lived close by.
Long term needs of my soul: Dating
Cher’s big shift is she’s going to be moving out-of-state. She stayed in her small town where she felt stuck, but you know what— she had an easy job, it was close to her mom, and she was never gonna get fired. She realized that she didn’t move on with her life because she was waiting for her mother — to forgive her. She needed her mother’s blessing to start living her own life.
Sometimes, we wait around for someone to be proud of us or to let us go… we won’t leave, no matter how unhappy we are— we stay and wait… for that person to let us go. Cher’s mother was holding onto Cher— with her anger. When Cher finally cuts the ropes of her mother’s anger she’ll be free… to love someone else besides her mother. She’ll be free to love a life partner.
