A calling is one of those things that God implants in us at a very young age, before we have a chance to reason our way out of it.
Many adults are in a situation where they have skills that they are good at, but they are unfulfilled. They could be really good at a certain job, from what they studied in college or school or from work experience.
But some how they have this nagging feeling that says; “I’m not doing what I was born to do. This doesn’t feel right.”
If you have lost the idea of what your calling, purpose, gifts and talents are; you need to peel back the layers to rediscover them.
If you have felt stuck, frustrated and unfulfilled in what you are doing, listen and be inspired. You might closer than you think!
As a Mindset Coach I’m here to help you shift your thinking and unlock your full potential! If you’re needing support, encouragement and accountability; consider joining my group coaching program Unstick Your Mind.
TRANSCRIPT
Welcome to Mimika TV. Get ready to break through barriers, fuel your faith, pursue your purpose, and market your message so you can impact the marketplace for God.
Callings, I think, are one of those things that God implants in us at a young age. If you think about what you were like at five, because most five-year-olds, they still have their childhood wonder. They’re still in that love of learning before the school system takes that. But if you think about what you were like as a five-year-old, where you were carefree and you didn’t really care about consequences, or you sang dancing on the kitchen table, you didn’t care what people thought. We can go back and find, I even remember one of my kids, my son, he was into Lego and he was three and we would get him a box.
And him as a five-year-old, most kids would follow the instructions and put the pieces of Lego together. He would look at this and he would try to find other ways of making them, and he would make all sorts of shapes and then he wouldn’t follow the instructions. He wanted to make his own contraptions. And then he would start finding pieces from other boxes that fit. So at a very young age, I was like, “I think we have an engineer on our hands here.” Like, “Maybe we should put him in an environment where those kinds of things are nurtured.” But unfortunately, don’t get me started on the school system because that just gets me on a rant. But for me, my view is that we want to nurture those things that God implanted in us before we got tainted by the world.
And if we’ve lost our idea of what our calling and our purpose and our gifts and talents are, we need to peel back the layers. Because for many adults that I work with, a lot of the time, they’re either in a situation where they’ve got skills and they’re really good at things. Like they could be really, really good at doing a certain thing from either what they studied in college or school or in a job. But sometimes, they’re not fulfilled. They have this internal thing that says, “I’m not doing what I need to do. This doesn’t feel right.”
Even if you see on TV, there’s a guy called Ken Jeong, he’s actually a qualified doctor. And he comes from an Asian family. So his parents, his expectations were that you go to school and you become a doctor. And he hated it!
And eventually, he took a chance and said, “I want to be a standup comedian.” So you can imagine how that went down the dinner table. Like, “Hey Mom and Dad, I’ve just done seven years of medical studies, but I’m going to be a comedian.” You can imagine the raucous laughter, but you know what? He fathered his dream and now he’s on TV, he’s on movies. He’s created himself and he’s being himself. He’s the same when he’s acting as when he’s being himself. That is such a true example of how many people are Ken Jeongs in disguise, who are stuck in situations who are not following their calling, that purpose He put in you. I would challenge you today to really think about how you were when you were a kid.
What are things that you love to do? Like if you had to talk about something all day and you didn’t get paid for it, what would that be? Now, of course, there is a caveat to that. As adults, we have to pay the bills. But how can we get back to being ourselves? For me, I was always told I was very bossy and very chatty. So I was like “scoff Oh?” And being at school, I got myself in trouble a lot. But now, being chatty is actually how I make my money! So hah! You know, I’m glad my mom encouraged me to be a talker, even though many of my friends, I would drive them crazy and they’d be like, “Shut up!” So think about how you were as a kid. Look back at what you feel and you will know within yourself if you are in the right place. It’s just that sense of peace.
So I would always say pray about where you feel you should be. Think about how you were before you started trying to please people, whether it’s your parents’ and teachers’ expectations. We become people-pleasers as we get older. And it’s really hard to undo that as you get older, but it’s not to say it’s impossible. And sometimes it takes you being a bit brave to stand up and say, “This isn’t me.” Like “Hey, I learned accounting in school, but I actually hate numbers. Like, no.” That’s not what God wants for you, that’s not a fulfilled life. To be working and to say, “When I get to retirement, then I’ll live,” is such a waste of talents and a good life. And God has given you a lot of opportunity. No matter your background, no matter your history, no matter your hurts and your failings, God can use anybody.
And that’s why I’m so passionate about this whole concept of what makes a champion. I’m actually busy working, in between trying to do Christmas shopping and stuff is writing my book, which is number nine. I tell you, I’ve had to learn things the hard way. Writing a book is like having a baby; it’s all exciting in the beginning and then the nausea sets in and then you’re like “Ugh,” and then you have the messy middle and then you get to push towards the end and it’s really painful. But then when you get it done, you’re like, “Oh! This is so great. Let me do it again!” So there’s me, I’m in the euphoria stage, I’ll go, “Oh, it’s such a cool idea. Let’s do this again.” But I’m sure reality will hit me soon. But what I’ve been finding in my research, and this is what is so encouraging.
The book’s called Heart of a Champion: How Ordinary People Achieve the Extraordinary. And if we look at an example like David, for instance, everyone thinks he was this fabulous, wonderful king, and he was just born with a silver spoon in his mouth, and he was super special. He wasn’t necessarily ultra-special. He just said yes to God. He was an ordinary shepherd. God looked at his heart and was like, “I can do something with this. I can work with this.” And even fast forward to when he killed Goliath. That’s why I feel mindset is so important. His brothers were camping outside Goliath’s camp opposite towards the enemy. Every morning, the enemy Goliath would stand out and taunt them. If you look up the word “taunt,” it means “harass,” it means “throw insult.” So he was speaking all sorts of trash to them.
So his brothers were listening to this, day in and day out, being mentally battered and their confidence shot. But David wasn’t privy to that. He hadn’t been around. So he walked up with rucksack and braid, saying, “Hey, what’re you guys doing? Why are you sitting around? Why are you letting this idiot call you names?” Like, “Excuse me, did you just insult my God?” He didn’t have the fear. His mindset wasn’t destroyed by days and months and weeks or however long it was of being abused, the verbal abuse that his brothers had gone through. He knew his authority. He knew his God. And he had unfailing faith that God would show up. So he took a step of faith. Can you imagine if nothing happened after he did that and he’d be like, “Whoops, well, that didn’t work….” So knowing that his mind was in the right place, he had decided that he was going to follow God.
And if God had given him that instruction, and even the fact that he wasn’t wearing armor like everybody else. He went with his own view of how he was going to do things. And it was really congruent to him. He was not an archer. He wasn’t a sword fighter. Well, yes, that’s when he was younger. His tools of choice were a slingshot and a smooth stone, because that’s what he knew and God used what he knew. So if we just think about it, if we all have an inner David or we all have an inner Deborah, and Deborah oh! That’s my favorite character.
Okay, well, she doesn’t get a lot of airtime, like a lot of these other names in the Bible. But what I love about her, she was a very progressive woman. She was a wife, she was a mother, she was a judge. People would really respect her judgment on things. She was entrepreneurial. She had her own business, she was selling cloth and helping run the households. But she also was prophetic. So she relied on what God directed her to do. And they overcame a really big battle against the dark forces because she pressed into knowing, “This is how God made me. And I’m going to use what God has given me to give Him glory.” But it’s because they said yes. So everybody you read in the Bible—you’re going to look at this with new eyes—nobody was special. They just said yes to God, they partnered with Him, and they trusted Him in the process. So hopefully you can find some encouragement in that and tap into your own champion within you.
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