Many of us go through life at a comfortable pace, only to feel a subtle nudge that there’s something more. In today’s blog post, based on the latest episode of “Own Your Awesome” with Miranda Von Frickin, we explore how to discover and embrace your true calling. Whether you’re at the start of your journey or you’ve already been dabbling, here are actionable steps to help you move forward and own your awesome.

Understanding the Stages of Recognizing Your Calling

Before diving into actionable steps, it’s important to identify which stage you are in regarding recognizing your calling. According to Miranda, there are three main stages:

1. No Idea What My Calling Is: You haven’t yet figured out what you are meant to do.
2. I Have an Idea and I Dabble: You know what brings you joy and you do it occasionally.
3. I Know Exactly What I’m Meant to Do, but I’m Not Doing It: You are fully aware of your purpose but haven’t yet taken the plunge.

Where do you see yourself? Understanding your stage is key to determining your next steps.

Let it In: Recognizing the Sparks

One of the first actionable steps is to let your calling find its way into your life naturally. Picture moments when you feel energized and in the zone. For Miranda, these moments came while interviewing candidates as a recruiter. Reflect on what aspects of your job or day-to-day activities make you feel this way and write them down.

Assignment:
– Journal about activities that make you lose track of time.
– Note where you are, who you’re with, and how you feel during these moments.

Prepare Logistically: Practical Steps to Transition

Preparation is key in making your shift from dabbling to doing. Miranda emphasizes starting small but being consistent:

– Update Your Resume and LinkedIn: These basic steps can open new doors.
– Continuous Learning: Consider taking classes or obtaining certifications relevant to your calling.
– Set a Timeline: Establish short-term and long-term goals to keep yourself on track.

Assignment:
– Schedule a block of time to update your resume and LinkedIn profile.
– Identify any skills gaps and find courses or certifications to fill them.
– Create a 3-month, 6-month, and 1-year action plan.

Visualizing Success: The Power of Imagination

Imagine what your life would look like once you fully embrace your calling. Visualization helps in manifesting your goals into reality. Think about the feelings associated with achieving these goals and let those emotions drive your daily actions.

Assignment:
– Spend 5-10 minutes each day visualizing your life with your calling fully realized.
– Develop a vision board that represents your goals and aspirations.

Call in the Calling: Seeking Divine Guidance

Sometimes, recognizing your calling involves more than self-reflection – it also means asking for guidance. Whether you turn to prayer, meditation, or another spiritual practice, seeking signs from a higher power can provide clarity.

Assignment:
– Meditate or pray about your calling. Ask for guidance and signs.
– Be open to unexpected opportunities and intuitive nudges.

Taking the Leap: When You’re Overprepared

Some individuals find themselves ready but hesitant to make the final leap. Over-preparation can sometimes be a form of procrastination. If you’ve been preparing but haven’t yet acted, it’s time to move forward.

Assignment:
– Identify one significant action you can take this week to move closer to living your calling.
– Share your plans with a trusted friend to add a layer of accountability.

Final Thoughts: Stop Playing Small

Miranda’s own journey is a testament to the ups and downs of pursuing your calling. After being laid off four times, she realized that the universe was pushing her towards her true purpose. Rejecting fear and embracing her calling led to an incredibly fulfilling path of coaching and speaking.

Remember, you’re capable of turning your dreams into reality. Whether you’re staying in a 9-to-5 or preparing for a complete transition, the key is to act, even if it’s just small steps initially.

Next Steps:
1. Reflect on your current stage.
2. Implement the practical steps outlined in this post.
3. Join Miranda’s network and gain additional support through her content and coaching.

Call to Action:
Make today the day you start truly owning your awesome. If this resonates with you, connect with Miranda Von Frickin on LinkedIn or Instagram. Embrace the opportunity to work together with mentors who understand the journey and are eager to support you. Your calling awaits – it’s time to answer!

By embracing these methods and steps, you’re setting yourself up for a more fulfilling life aligned with your true calling. Trust the process, take action, and watch as your dreams transform into your everyday reality.

Transcript:

Miranda [00:00:00]:
Hello. Hello, and welcome to another episode of Own Your Awesome. I’m your host, Miranda Von Frickin. Today is part 2 of a 2 part series where we’re discussing your calling. Last week, if you didn’t catch the episode, go back and listen to it, pause this, of course, come back to it. You could enjoy it even if you didn’t hear part 1, but it would be much more effective if you check out part 1. So go ahead, pause here, I won’t be offended. Go back.

Miranda [00:00:30]:
Check it out. And then, of course, come right back. So today, we are talking about about the impact of ignoring your calling. We talked a little bit of we talked in-depth about it actually last week. Today, I wanna talk about preparing to to accept the calling on your life. So last week, we talked about 3 different kind of stages that you could be in, if you will. 1 was no idea what my calling is. The second one is I I have an idea and I dabble.

Miranda [00:01:07]:
And the third one would have been, I know exactly what I’m meant to do, why I’m put on this earth. I’m just not doing it. Now you may be wondering why didn’t you talk about the person who knows exactly what their calling is and that she’s following it and how amazing it is. Well, ultimately, that would be owning your awesome, and I am all about owning your awesome. But this is a show a 100% dedicated to those in on their journey to owning their awesome. And some episodes are gonna be more about the journey, and some are gonna be about the destination. And today, we’re talking about the journey, what to do, how to prepare to live out your calling. So this can be for any stage you’re in, and I talked a little bit about preparing to follow your calling.

Miranda [00:01:54]:
Maybe dabbling, side hustling, if you will, whether it’s entrepreneurship or a different industry or a whole different job, you need to quit your job and start over again. I’m not telling you to do that by any stretch of the imagination because that’s not what I did. What I did, if you recall, is I got laid off. I had a calling in my heart. I didn’t answer the call, and the universe just made it happen for me. Technically, they made it happen by laying me off 4 times, which I don’t ever recommend, but I know that’s something that’s completely out of our control. So I like to have a little more control. Right? That’s that owning piece of your awesome, owning what you do, the steps you take, the environment you’re in.

Miranda [00:02:40]:
That’s how we start to prepare and own our actions when we are preparing to live out our calling. I’ve got a few tips, of course, and a few action steps for those of us who are aware of what our calling is and how do we start living it out in a way that’s natural and not forced, as well as not just jumping right into it, quitting our jobs and and going hard living out the calling. Because if we’re being completely honest, there is a little thing called reality. And I’d love to say I quit my job, I went full in, and I made 6 figures my 1st year, and I’ve been balling ever since. That’s not the case. That that’s entrepreneurship and big transitions in life, especially going from a 9 to 5 that you’ve been in for 20 years to owning your own business that you’ve never done, never been exposed to. So I am taking the reality more of the dreamer route during this, episode, but stick with it because you know me. I love me some dreams.

Miranda [00:03:49]:
So ultimately, we’re following our dream by knowing what our calling is and living it out. How do we do that? Well, first, I say let it in. Right? That’s one thing that I always did. Even when I wasn’t so sure, any ping that I got of joy, of excitement, whenever I was even in school, when I was working on a paper in a certain topic, flow would just kick in, and I would just feel completely in, like, a zone when it came to the research, the the writing of the paper, the presenting the paper, the topic itself. When you’re at work and is there a piece of your work that you just melt into? You’re like, I absolutely love this. For me, it was interviewing. I absolutely love I was in human resources. I was a recruiter, talent acquisition manager.

Miranda [00:04:45]:
I absolutely loved the interview process. I wasn’t a fan of reading and writing all the resumes, setting up the travel arrangements to fly people in. My jam was getting face to face with someone and asking them amazing questions about their life and hearing their answers and knowing that I could, in some way, help them or strategize with them to achieve the goal that they had set for themselves. And that’s obviously what I do today as a coach. And so letting it in was something that I did real early on because it just felt easy. What is something in your job, in your role, in your life that just feels so natural, so easy? That’s the thing you wanna do a little bit more of. Lean into it just a little bit more because that may be your calling or a piece of it, which it was for me. So let it in just a little.

Miranda [00:05:44]:
Feel it. Maybe journal on it. Take some notes while it’s happening. How you feel? Where are you? Who’s involved in it? How long do you get to do it in your job? And then is there a way for you to increase that part of your job? For me, not only did I love interviewing, I loved creating trainings, which is what I do as a workshop leader and keynote speaker. So I absolutely loved researching, creating trainings, helping people to create transformation. So for me, I was not a learning and development leader at my job, but I volunteered to create a training program for our up and coming leaders. And it was something that the leaders really needed. They wanted it.

Miranda [00:06:30]:
They were pumped to be a part of it. And every time I taught that class, I just felt like I could do it all day. So talking to people, interviewing them just as much as creating training programs for them and helping them to really have these moments. Like, how I was like, how can I do this in recruiting? And there was a piece of it that I could have done in recruiting, but the bigger piece was in training and development. So I volunteered, and I created a program, and it was amazing, and everybody loved it. So is there something in your role that you love doing? How can you do more of it? And if it’s not a part of your role, is it just something you can take on anyway? Maybe take off somebody else’s plate? That may be an option. It definitely won’t be if you don’t ask. Now if you hate everything about your job, because I’d love to, like, help everybody.

Miranda [00:07:23]:
If you hate every piece of your job, I I highly recommend figuring out what you love to do in general and see how you can incorporate it into your life, whether it’s through volunteer work, joining a board, joining a club, getting a hobby. So there’s a lot of ways for you to incorporate the thing you love most. Lean into it more, not just at work, but in your life as well. The next part would be to prepare yourself. This is something I I work a lot with on clients is preparing themselves to accept the calling on their life and to not only accept it emotionally and spiritually, but literally in the job world. Prepare yourself through updating, brushing off, starting from scratch, your resume, your LinkedIn profile. Do you have to take some classes? Do you need a mentor? Do you need to hire a coach? I mean, obviously, they hired 1 or I wouldn’t be telling you their story. Create a hypothetical timeline of when this could happen for you, especially if it’s you know what you love, there’s new jobs out there for you to apply to, or you already have a side hustle and you can start a business and and kick it up a notch, this is something that you’re already doing, so you can create a timeline.

Miranda [00:08:42]:
Perhaps the timeline is as small as well, today’s Monday. So by Wednesday afternoon, I’m gonna hire a resume writer, or I’m going to find my resume from 15 years ago, or I’m gonna hop on LinkedIn by lunchtime today. There’s so and if you are on LinkedIn, of course, connect to me and tell me you heard this podcast, and we’ll just have a better conversation. But what can you do timeline wise? What can you do this week? What can you do today? What can you do this month? What can you do in the next 6 months? I mean, at this point, based on let me take a look at my calendar. It is the oh, weird. July 3rd by time this airs. Alright. It’s a new month, friends.

Miranda [00:09:29]:
So July 3rd means you have 6 months. What can you do in 6 months to not only lean into your calling, accept it emotionally and spiritually, and take action on the calling that is on your heart for your life. So you can let it in. You can prepare for it a little bit more logistically with your resume, LinkedIn, taking classes that you may need to take, getting yourself a mentor or a coach, and then create the hypothetical timeline. I mean, it may not be hypothetical. At first, it may be, but then it may be literal. You you could start 2024 in a new role with a new business. There’s so much you could be doing in 6 months.

Miranda [00:10:16]:
And it’s funny too how we look to think, alright. In 3 years, I’m gonna get a new job, blah blah blah, whatever. How about in 3 months? What are you gonna do in 3 months? That’s 90 days. You can make a lot of changes in 90 days, my friends. Alright. So another thing you can do is to visualize how it could be in the future. Right? So 3 months from now, 6 months from now, what do you want your life to look like? Is it still currently what it looks like? Maybe your life is fabulous. I mean, I love my life, but there is definitely some things I’d like to see enhanced in the next 3 to 6 months.

Miranda [00:10:52]:
So when I visualize those changes, that visualization comes with a feeling attached to it, and that feeling is what drives me to take all the little steps I gotta take to achieve that goal. And then what points within the next 3 to 6 months can you say, alright. I need to change this, this, and this or tweak this, this, and this. What are the areas of opportunity that pop up in your head if you’re like, alright, jobs for example, because it’s an easy example. If you don’t love your job and you need a new one, the easiest obvious things to do are to update your resume, start looking on LinkedIn for opportunities, connect with people who can help you whether it’s a recruiter, whether it’s a coach, maybe tell a friend or family member that you trust to keep their eyes open. And then, of course, pray on the opportunity, put it in your vision board, journal about it, all that good stuff. Like, those are obvious things you can do, steps you can take to be able to live out that that goal, that to reach that goal, to live out the potential calling. Some other things that you can do is start to really call in what it is you think your calling is.

Miranda [00:12:08]:
So it’s already on your heart. Hopefully, you know what you’re meant to do. Say you’re meant to should I use the dolphin training example? Nah. We’ll change it. Say you’re meant to be a coach. We’ll just use a coach as an example, life and business coach, and you’ve been doing it for years, your friends and family members, and you’re just not sure how to even start. Well, some things you can do is talk to life or business coaches and find out how they got to where they are today. You could Google.

Miranda [00:12:38]:
How easy is it to Google these days? Let’s be honest. How to do x, whatever it is you wanna do, early steps. What should I be doing? How can I prepare? Because this episode is all about preparing to live the calling that’s on your heart. I, unfortunately, did not have the luxury to prepare. I got laid off 4 times. Told you about that last episode. The feelings that were attached to that were bitterness and BS. However, I honestly think God was preparing me the whole time.

Miranda [00:13:09]:
If you heard the whole episode, you would hear some of the jobs that I had in the past where I feel were stepping stones to get me to where I was. But it wasn’t until I’d say the second layoff, going into the third, I knew for sure my time was almost up in the corporate space. So things I used to do in that second to last job was create not only a list for what I had to do for the day, for the job, right, because I still had to be the best I could be in that role, but I made a list for myself, a little Post it on top of my notebook of the top three things I needed to do that day to drive this potential business forward. I didn’t have it yet. I had been coaching and speaking for years, but it wasn’t the business as it is today. So beyond dabbling, it was what are what are the 3 things I have to do today? So I’d put it on a Post it and whether it was reach out to some people, that’s actually where I created my first mastermind, which is amazing. My 1st paid mastermind, I should say. I’ve been doing it for free for years.

Miranda [00:14:12]:
That’s what I mean by doing it without having, like, an income. Right? Like, it’s okay to volunteer. It’s okay to do things for free, especially in the beginning. And I held years of masterminds for free with my biz besties and a few other close friends for years for free because I just loved it. I was in a flow when it came to masterminds, and I still am. I just happen to get paid a lot more for it now. So I didn’t have the super luxury of preparing like potentially other people have. If I had known that I was gonna be laid off 4 months later from that 3rd job, I probably would have kicked it up a little bit quicker.

Miranda [00:14:51]:
However, things all happen for a reason. Right? Like, whether whether I had been laid off, whether I had been, you know, get not laid off and been able to stay at that job full time, who knows what would I have who knows what I would have done had I’ve not been laid off? Sometimes we need the universe to kick our butt because sometimes we’re just not doing it for ourselves. We know there’s that spark inside of us, and it is often getting dimmer. When we ignore the calling on our heart, when we say no to opportunities because we’re scared, when we don’t go to events, whether they’re networking or award shows or galas, when we say no to these events because we’re scared, we’re holding ourselves back. And I think, actually, I know the universe does not like it. She is like, girl, you are meant to do this. This is the place you need to be. There’s somebody in this in this room that you need to talk to, and I’m gonna make sure you’re there.

Miranda [00:15:51]:
So I I want you to do a few things. Obviously, I want you to audit your past. If you don’t know what your calling was, audit your past. What are some things in the past that you can take with you into the current, into the future? I want you to sit down and meditate on and ask. Ask God, ask your guides, ask the universe, what am I meant to do? What’s next for me? Please bring it in. When I say call in your calling, I want you to flat out ask. Ask for signs, ask for calling. Please send me something that will put me in the state of flow, make me feel amazing, and and I end up saying, oh my god, that’s it.

Miranda [00:16:32]:
I wanna feel that way. Ask for that feeling, and I bet you you will get an amazing response. And then from there, of course, visualize what it’ll look like to live out your calling. If you know what it is and you’re ignoring it, please stop. I’m begging you to stop ignoring your calling. I think I got pretty lucky with all those layoffs. I think the universe said, like, an is enough enough, Marita. Like, it’s time to really do what it is God put you on this earth to do.

Miranda [00:16:59]:
It you’re done playing small. Cut the crap. God’s a little sassy with me. And I think, ultimately, it happened exactly the way it was meant to. If you’re open to staying in your 9 to 5 space, if you’re open to staying where you are today in order to lean in and get a little more prepared to live out your calling, I’m here for it. I’m here to support you. Shoot me a DM anywhere you’ve anywhere you follow me, whether it’s on LinkedIn, Instagram. Please feel free to ask me questions.

Miranda [00:17:30]:
And if you are like, nope. I know what it is. I’m done playing small. I’m quitting tomorrow. Maybe you’ve already started to prepare. Maybe you’re overprepared because that’s something I rarely tap into. Are you overprepared and have been so ready, but just kinda hesitant? It’s time, my friend. It is absolutely time for you to accept the calling on your life.

Miranda [00:17:56]:
Finally, live and do exactly what you’re meant to do that puts you in that state of awe and awesome, and finally live out your calling. Thank you so much for listening to part 2 of living out your calling to ultimately own your awesome. I’m so excited to bring this to you because it was it honestly was something that had been cooking up in me for years, ever since that first layoff and I didn’t even realize it. And here I am, multiple years later, finally sharing the story that I should have shared years ago. For those of you who follow me, may have heard a little bit of the story through content. If you wanna learn more, feel free to DM me, and I wanna help you live out your calling too. So whatever that looks like for you, whether it’s just getting a little bit of my energy through my content and any of the freebies I have, get on my email list, check out my website, mirandavonfricken.com. Go to that contact page.

Miranda [00:18:54]:
Get on my email list, the newsletter. I’ll send you tons of inspiration weekly just like this podcast. Be sure to follow this podcast, of course, if you’re not officially following it already. Give me that 5 star review, if you don’t mind. Tell everybody how great it is. Give me a review. And then, of course, if you wanna work together, I’m here for you. I’m absolutely here for you.

Miranda [00:19:15]:
I’ve got so many different options to work together for you to not have to do this alone because owning your awesome it doesn’t come by itself. You need people to support you. I think I did an episode on that. The people we roll with, check that episode out too, of course. But if you’re ready to finally own your awesome, live out your calling, and just stop BS ing the crap out of yourself like I did, please, please, when this episode is over, take a deep breath. If you’re driving, maybe pull over. Take a deep breath and just say, she’s got a point. It’s my time.

Miranda [00:19:56]:
What do I need to do? And just wait for the answer. It’ll come to you. Give it a few seconds. And when you know what to do, don’t hesitate. Don’t walk. Run, and I’ll see you on the other side. Until next week, continue to own your awesome. Bye.