We’re having tea – strong, sweet tea - as we sit on the stone veranda overlooking an emerald sea. You’re laughing and telling funny stories about the challenges in your life when the conversation turns to career.

“I don’t know – it’s just not clear to me what my true work is or how to manifest it,” you explain. “The job I’m doing, well, it pays the bills. But I feel like I’m dying inside.”

We sip our tea and look quietly out over the stone wall beside our table - across the vast expanse of open water. These are white gulls in the distance and a gentle breeze ruffles the cloth on our table.

“You’re a master soul, my friend. You’re required to own up to your great work in this lifetime,” I whisper to you softly across the table. “Remember, you signed up for this. You chose to come forward as a teacher to use your gifts to help raise the vibration of the planet.”

“I’m just not seeing it,” you sigh with frustration – putting down your cup forcefully on its saucer. Again, we pull out your notebook and look at your name, your birth date. We add the digits again and study the numbers. We meditate on your path.

“Yes, it’s a master path,” I explain. “No way around it. And yes, you wrapped that lovely Pisces energy around it to flavor your mission with emotion and intuition. It’s quite a lovely path, actually, though different from what most would people call a ‘normal’ life.”

“I guess that’s the problem,” you moan. “I see the path, but how do I do it? I have to pay the mortgage and … the kids, well. That’s another story…”

But you signed up for all that as well, I remind you. “Now, you’re bumping up against a big choice-point in your life. What you do and think about right now determines everything. And it models a way of living for your children who are watching every move you make and don’t make.”

“I get that,” you say softly.

“Are you focused on the great possibilities in front of you, the potential solutions for making a change in your life? Or are you focused on the reasons why you can’t change? Are you letting self-doubt and fear pull you down into the ‘pitiful self’ where there are no solutions and steps can’t be taken?”

“Guess I have been feeling kinda pitiful,” you say with a smile. “I just don’t feel good enough or smart enough to … I mean, who do I think I am to want to do something important in the world?”

“You are who you came here to be, and your mission is what it is. Don’t waste your energy doubting it. Let’s jot down some baby steps you can take to investigate doing the work we talked about. Let’s see, you said you knew some people you could talk to about that business idea. And there were some websites you were going to visit and phone calls to make…”

“But why do I have so much pain?” you ask. “It hasn’t been an easy lifetime.”
“You set it up that way. The pain in your lifetime is designed to become your fuel to do your work in the world – making the world a better place in your unique way. Your pain becomes your motivation – your mission.”

“When I grew up, I was abused and powerless as a child,” you explain. “I’m still wounded by that.”

“It means your mission now is to offer to others what you wished had been offered to you; your work is to help others realize how powerful they are and learn to trust themselves and their own inner guidance – in spite of whatever circumstances make them doubt themselves.”

“How?”

“By using your innate gifts in your work. Those gifts are always on purpose – not incidental. They aren’t supposed to be relegated to hobbies or volunteer work. We are meant to make our living with our gifts – not bury them.”

“Then why am I so afraid?”

“Well that’s the ‘pitiful self’ that we all have – our universal negativity. We can choose to give in to our fear and not live up to our mission. Or we can choose to move forward anyway – using our fear as fuel to make us successful. At the end of our lifetime, it matters to us how well we pushed past that fear and lived up to the mission.”

You ponder that for awhile as we finish the tea. Together, we write a list of baby steps you can take to investigate your new career ideas, to move forward, to look into possibilities for change. You promise to focus your thoughts on solutions, and you promise to meditate or pray every day for at least 20 minutes in order to tap into your higher self and remember your mission.

We sit for a few more minutes in silence – watching the ripples in the water below us. After awhile you say, “Okay, I’m good now. I remember.” You stand up from the table.

You wake up.

If you’re at a turning point in your life and career, how do you move forward past the fear? Here are five steps to help you:

1. Meditate or pray for at least 20 minutes a day. This is how you tap into your inner GPS system. You’ve got to plug in and recharge everyday or you’ll be running on empty.

2. Focus on 3 baby steps you can take this week to look into new career possibilities.

3. Imagine that you are a divine master soul who signed up for some great work to help raise the vibration of the planet using your unique gifts. What work would you do?

4. Don’t worry about what the perfect career is for you and feel that you have to know all the answers before you start taking baby steps. You don’t. Just a few steps in a new direction will call in all sorts of divine guidance to pull you forward in the right direction.

5. Know your mission for this lifetime. (See Nexus Jan/Feb issue.)

Author and Career Intuitive Sue Frederick’s work has been featured in The New York Times, Yoga Journal, Natural Health, Fit Yoga, and at venues like The Crossings Retreat Center in Austin. She’s the author of Dancing at Your Desk, I See Your Dream Job, and BrilliantDay. For more info or to schedule a session, visit www.CareerIntuitive.org or call 303-939-8574.