Finding and Living Your Calling

Joy, Fulfilment and Freedom in Being Who You Are

There is a particular joy in doing what you feel called to do. Your attention becomes absorbed, your gifts find expression, and what you give feels connected to who you are. Whether through creating, teaching, caring, building, discovering or serving, you recognise something of yourself in the activity itself.

I believe finding and living our calling is a path to fulfilment because it allows our natural state of being to find expression in everyday life. What we do becomes a way of sharing who we are; our participation brings meaning to our own lives and contributes something to the lives of others.

Recognising Your Calling

A calling often becomes recognisable through the interests we return to, the questions that occupy us, and the activities we feel drawn to pursue. We might notice it in something we have loved since childhood, a contribution we feel compelled to make, or work that engages us so completely that we lose track of time.

For me, that calling is writing. Long before I became a doctor, I wanted to write books. Stories, ideas and questions about life continued to draw my attention through the years I spent in medicine. Writing gave those interests expression; it became a way of exploring what mattered to me and sharing what I discovered.

Recognising a calling asks us to pay attention to our own experience. What engages your curiosity? What do you love giving your time to? Where do you feel the satisfaction of using your abilities in a meaningful way? The answers can reveal a direction worth exploring through participation.

Your Natural State of Being

At the heart of my philosophy is the understanding that joy, security, acceptance, peace and freedom are inherent qualities of our natural state of being. We recognise these qualities in moments when we feel at ease with ourselves, absorbed in something we love, or free to express what matters to us.

Living our calling gives these qualities expression. Joy appears in the activity itself. Fulfilment arises through meaningful participation and contribution. Freedom is experienced as we allow our understanding of who we are to inform our choices and actions.

This is why calling matters to me. It connects the question of being with the experience of living; through what we create, share and contribute, something of our inner nature becomes visible in the world.

Giving Expression to Who You Are

A calling takes shape through participation. A writer writes, a gardener tends, a teacher helps someone understand. Each act gives expression to an interest, an ability, a love of something that matters enough to engage with.

Our calling can find expression across different areas of life: in our work, our relationships, our creativity, our service to others. Paying attention to these expressions helps us understand what brings meaning to our days and where we want to give more of ourselves.

As we participate, we also discover. Experience reveals what engages us, what we value, and what we want to explore further. Finding and living our calling become part of the same unfolding process; understanding deepens through the life we live.

Recognise. Rest. Reflect.

I describe my approach to this exploration as the Living Path: Recognise, Rest and Reflect. These are movements we can return to whenever we want to understand our experience and live more consciously.

Recognise what draws your attention, what brings you alive, and what you already know about your calling. Notice, too, the beliefs and expectations that influence how you respond to it.

Rest in your natural state of being. Allow yourself to abide in the joy, peace and freedom already present, giving your own understanding room to become clearer.

Reflect these qualities through your participation in life. Give expression to what you recognise through your work, your creativity, your relationships and your contribution to others.

Explore Through Books, Writing and Conversation

My books, essays and talks explore these ideas through stories, reflection and lived experience. Across fiction and non-fiction, I return to the relationship between who we are, how we see ourselves, and how fully we participate in life.

My hope is that this work helps you recognise your own calling and give it expression, discovering the joy, fulfilment and freedom of living from your natural state of being.

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