What’s Your Calling?

What’s Your Calling? 

Many years ago I was having a conversation with my aunt who’s been a teacher for over 20 years. I was trying to figure out what I wanted to do with my life and told her that I was leaning towards being a teacher but that my Dad advised me not to do it. He said there are three things you don’t want to get into; teaching, banking and insurance. They don’t pay very well. That’s when my aunt told me that you don’t get into teaching for the money. It’s more of a calling.

From time to time I’ve heard others talk about it’s their calling. What does that mean? To me it means they’re drawn to it, a pull towards it. A calling doesn’t appear to happen often but some people do feel that pull. It’s not that it doesn’t exist in everyone but that we may have tuned it out, aren’t listening to it or that we are aware of it but has put it on hold. Perhaps life has been so busy that we haven’t had the time to reflect on it, to bring it to the forefront of our consciousness. If we did, we’d start manifesting it. I feel a pull but it’s usually not to a profession but more an interest. A calling is not only something you’re drawn to but also something that would give you great joy and satisfaction.

Unfortunately many people don’t act on their calling when they’re deciding what they what to do in life. They make their decisions based on salary, work hours and conditions which end up overriding the calling. Sometimes it takes decades, usually in middle age, that the person finally rediscovers they’re inner calling and acts on it. This is sad because society lost the person for all those years. They contributed to the economic structure of society but the person probably would have been more fulfilled and society in the end better off if the person had followed their calling.

So what’s your calling? What are you drawn to or compelled to do or be?  That’s the question you need to answer for yourself and then act on it. Just do it!

Making the Shift from Smart to Wise

Making the Shift from Smart to Wise

At what point does one become wise? The truth is there really isn’t any one significant event or time when someone is considered wise.  It’s an accumulation of events, experiences, sadness and joy that ultimately earns the recipient the term wise.

“Tis not knowing much, but what is useful, that makes a wise person”.  ~ Thomas Fuller, MD

“A wise person hears one word and understands two”.  ~ Yiddish Proverb

Oh and one thing you’ll notice about people you consider to be wise, they exude humility.  It’s as if through all their experiences they’ve learned where they fit in the world and are grateful for all they’ve experienced. 

Here are some people who didn’t slow down as they were getting older but continued to pursue their ambitions well into their 60’s.

60 – Dr Hattie Alexander discovers the cure for bacterial meningitis.

61 – Sharpshooter Annie Oakley nails 98 of100 clay pigeons in an exhibition at a North Carolina gun club.

62 – Louis Pasteur inoculates his first patient against rabies.

63 – Eugenicist Francis Galton demonstrates that each person’s fingerprints are unique.  Criminals worldwide mourn.

64 – Betty Ford, wife of President Gerald R. Ford, opens her eponymously named clinic to treat substance abuse.

65 – Colonel Harland Sanders begins nationwide licensing for his special fried chicken recipe, which will come to be known as Kentucky Fried Chicken.

66 – Michelangelo completes his Last Judgment fresco in the Sistine Chapel.

67 – Engineer Joseph Baermann Strauss celebrates as his masterwork, the Golden Gate Bridge, is opened to traffic.

68 – Lillian Cater, mother of President Jimmy Carter, joins the Peace Corps and works for two years as a nurse in India.

69 – Mary Kaplan realizes her goal of running a marathon in every U.S. state – and finishing first in her age group in each race.

It proves age is but a number.  You have as much life left in you as what you put into it.

Middle Age – I Think Not

The fifties are more like coming into your own and hitting your stride.  By this time in your life wisdom takes over where knowledge and experience left off.  All the choices you’ve made have come to fruitation or starting to emerge.  It’s a grand time because if you don’t have the “I don’t care what anybody thinks” attitude already, you sure have it now.

Reasons that held you back in the previous years now vanish and you come into your own. Your true colors emerge.  But why wait until you’re in your fifties when you can work on that attitude change right now.

Take a look at the unique people who’ve made their mark at “middle age.”

50 – Charles Darwin publishes his pioneering work, On the Origin of Species.

51 – Sandra Day O’Connor becomes the first woman justice to serve on the U.S. Supreme Court.

52 – Tchaikovsy composes a ballet suite called The Nutcracker.

      -   Ray Kroc, a milkshake machine salesman, starts a fast-food chain called McDonalds

      -   Leonardo da Vinci completes the Mona Lisa.

53 – Margaret Thatcher is elected as Great Britain’s first female Prime Minister.

      -  Walt Disney opens a theme park he calls Disneyland in Anaheim, California.

      -  Ernest Hemingway writes The Old Man and the Sea.

54 – Henry Heimlich makes public a choking-prevention maneuver that will eventually be named after him.

55 - Author Alex Haley publishes his epic masterwork, Roots.

56 – Gustave Eiffel completes the design for the Paris tower that will bear his name.

57 – George Washington is inaugurated as the first President of the United States, receiving all 69 electoral votes. He will stand as the only President unanimously elected.

      -  Annie Peck becomes the first person to reach the summit of Mount Huascaran in the Andes.

58 – W. H. Hoover develops an electric suction sweeper that is soon dubbed a vacuum cleaner.

59 – Clara Barton founds the American Red Cross

    - Madeleine Albright becomes the first women Secretary of State for the United States.

 

This just a reminder that it’s not over till it’s over.  Make the best use of the time you have here because when you hit 50 you may only be half way there.

The Fabulous 40’s

The Fabulous 40’s

 

Just when you think your life is on the down swing along come some remarkable people proving you wrong by hitting their stride. All the hard work and lessons they’ve learned have finally reached a climatic point where everything starts to come together and presto, greatness.

 

Life isn’t over.  It’s just beginning.

 

You know the saying “I wish I knew then what I know now”, that’s part of the wisdom you have in your forties. The forties are the accumulation of what you learned thus far but the difference is now you’ve got the courage and maturity to pull it off.

 

Just look at what these people achieved and they haven’t even reached middle age.

 

40 – Harriet Beecher Stow publishes Uncle Tom’s Cabin.

     -  Leo Tolstoy finishes writing a mammoth novel he titles War and Peace.

41 – The oldest punter in the NFL, Jeff Feagles is names by his fellow players as one of   the league’s top punters.

42 – A man apparently not afraid to seek guidance for direction, Galileo Galilei invents the compass.

43 – Physician John H. Kellogg creates a flaked breakfast cereal.

44 - Sam Walton founds Wal-Mart.

45 – Henry Ford introduces and automobile he dubs the Model T.

     - Gene Rodenberry unveils a TV series he calls Star Trek.

     - Walter Cronkite assumes the role of anchor of The CBS Evening News.

46 – Charles Darrow invents a board game called Monopoly.

     - Volleyball legend Karch Kiraly plays his final matches before finally retiring.

47 – Scottish bacteriologist Alexander Fleming discovers an antibiotic called penicillin.

48 – Mark Twain publishes The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.

49 – Chef Julia Child writes Mastering the Art of French Cooking.

 

Don’t let age be an excuse. 

 

“Our greatest glory is not in never failing, but in rising every time we fall.” ~ Confucius

You’ve Only Just Begun

You’ve Only Just Begun

When I was a teen I thought my 40 something parents were old and that it was down hill from there, boy was I wrong.

The 30’s is when most people are establishing themselves in their career and settling into a family routine, if there is such a thing, where family plays a big part of life.

As the 40’s emerge there are the ceremonial “over the hill” parties and jokes.  The kids are more equipped to take care of themselves and you’re established in your career.

The younger generation looks at these times as being over the hill but really you’ve only just begun, typically it’s somewhere in the 30-40 age range when a person starts to really discover who they are.  What is it they really want out of life?  Where do they want to go from here? 

Take a look at some of the people who didn’t start to wither away but who continued to challenge themselves to be more than who they started out to be. In this list are some famous and not so famous people who have made their mark in profound ways. How many times have you sang, “Happy Birthday to You”? Do you know it was written by a 34 year old woman?

 

30- Sylvester Stallone stars in Rocky, a film he also directed and wrote.

30- Thomas Edison invents the phonograph.

31- Shakespeare pens Romeo and Juliet.

32- Lila Wallace, along with husband Dewitt, founds Reader’s Digest.

33- Thomas Jefferson pens the Declaration of Independence.

33- George Lucas creates a film called Star Wars.

34- Phil Knight launches a shoe and apparel company that he calls Nike.

34- Amelia Earhart becomes the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic.

34- Kindergarten teacher Mildred hill composes the music for a ditty called “Happy Birthday to You.”

35- Margret Rey writes a children’s book called Curious George.

36- Albert Einstein proclaims his general theory of relativity: the fields of physics and astronomy will never be the same.

36- Ben Franklin invents the Franklin stove.

36- Johnny Carson debuts as host of The Tonight Show.

37- Ann Landers begins a newspaper advice column.

37- Amy Tan publishes The Joy Luck Club.

38- Dr. Jonas Salk develops a vaccine for polio.

38- Coco Chanel unveils her perfume, Chanel No 5.

39- After dropping 70 pounds, Jean Nidetch creates a movement called Weight Watchers.

This is just a small fraction of the people who have made a difference at a young age. Wait till you see the list for the fabulous 40’s.

The point being, age is but a number.  Don’t let it hinder you from what you were born to be.