What I hope every reader will find in these pages (and I include the coaches, counselors and helpers who may be sought out to provide guidance in this process)  are many thought-provoking ideas for your consideration. You will find conversation starters, prompts for reflection, an impetus to share your life story with others. You will also find plenty of encouragement to get into action so that you can create your own islands of meaning, joy and service in our currently challenging world.

Part One opens the conversation about “calling” and “contribution” with very broad strokes, using the examples of others. When you discover and act on your own, most true impulses, where can it lead? What are the possibilities that resonate for you as you consider the variety of ways and venues to which others have been called?

Part Two begins laying out the queries you may want to pose to yourself. You get a chance to explore what you know about your unique passions, gifts, desires and calls to service—the ones you may already be expressing, and the ones you may want to express more consciously.

Part Three invites you to pause. You will have arrived at a place where you may have gotten some of the information you need about yourself. How might you want to proceed?

Part Four provides a “big nudge” for you to tell more of the truth about what you really want to be or do—no matter how new or intimidating. You get the opportunity to align your intentions at all levels, and to admit and transform any reluctance you are feeling about going for what you feel compelled and excited to do.

Part Five offers guidance illustrated by those who have taken action on their own behalf in the world. Hopefully it will serve as inspiration for some of the ways you may choose to move forward onto your desired life path.

Part Six acknowledges that as life proceeds, natural talents form into new and uniquely clustered gifts. Life purpose may take different forms, and it’s important to return to reflection: “What’s my authentic role at this time in my life on the planet?”

An Appendix contains a few resources that I have found useful to the lifeshaping process which are beyond the scope of the book to discuss in detail.  The second printing includes an additional Appendix E, where I felt compelled to discuss the societal context in which we are now making our life choices.

And finally, I offer this gift in hopes that you, the reader, will find your right place, honor the beauty of your own gifts, and dare to express them. Allow the questions and the examples of others to lead you “home” to yourself. Have patience with your inquiry and be willing for it to last as long as it takes. Know that you may find some sections easier than others, depending on your own comfort with reflection and introspection. It’s important to remember that the questions, the steps, and the illustrations contained herein are not designed to “prescribe” answers for your life. Rather, they invite reflection, point a direction, and offer some gentle guidance. After all, it is only your own best answers that will work for you. Your best answers will come when you seek them, when you are ready for them and when you have the courage to lean into them. The world awaits you—and me—no matter how old we are!

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