"Not known, because not looked for." T.S. Eliot, "Four Quartets"

I hear people lamenting the fact that they haven’t found their calling yet. Perhaps it’s because they haven’t done the hard work of listening yet. Facing the silence, or more likely, the cacophony going on in our heads can be a little scary. Not many of us take time to be still and listen to what’s really going on in our heads and our hearts.

So, how do we start the search for our “calling”? I think the act of writing down one’s thoughts and feelings gives substance to our thoughts. When things are spelled out in black and white or blue ink, literally, something happens in that act of converting our thoughts to actually physical words on the paper or bits on a computer screen. Somehow they’re given legitimacy—even though they’re the same words we thought just a moment ago. The same can be said with words that are spoken aloud. It’s one thing to think thoughts, another to enunciate them.

My suggestion, one that has worked for me, is to start journaling daily, whether it’s in a notebook or a decorative journal or on your computer, it doesn’t really matter. Try it for a month and see where your thoughts take you.