I met with a friend today, who much like me, is a Searcher. Trying to find himself. His place. His purpose. He and I are both on a path of feeling our way toward our light through different experiences and emotions.
For me, and I think, for a lot of us, whatever we are doing on our journeys today bring us meaning and learning, but is ultimately a stepping stone toward figuring out our greater purpose. Maybe we are all Searchers. But digging deeper into who we really are often involves meaningful conversation. Meaningful conversation is an amazing life tool. We have so much we can learn from each other. We would be remiss to pass on the opportunity to learn from others by true and mindful dialogue. As my friend stated during our discussion, “Talking helps.” It’s true. It does.
Taking the time to discuss our common grounds, our different views, and various experiences we’ve encountered, we walked away learning and discovering more about life and how to orient our lives toward our true selves; toward our purpose. For instance, he asked me what I saw myself doing (often a very difficult question for me). And instead of responding with a particular job (because I really don’t know), I said that my pie-in-the-sky dream was to do a TED Talk someday. And when I talked about it, I could hear my energy rise, and my passion flow. It was not a be all, end all career answer, but it identified within me where I see my strengths: in story-telling and public speaking. Another clue and step closer to my calling.
If you’re feeling lost or unsettled in any area of your life, I encourage you to reach out to someone you respect and find common ground with. Set up a time, and meet face to face to talk. You don’t need to be prepared with a topic. Just let the dialogue flow in the direction you’re both feeling. The excitement of the reunion with another individual will be enough to kick off what could end up being amazing learning for you both. It’s truly cathartic. Open up, share your truths and ideas. Ask questions. Listen to each other; to the stories. You never know when the proverbial light bulb will appear. I always walk away from a meaningful dialogue feeling inspired and hopeful. When you extract light from each other, you can’t help but shine brighter.