Last week I finished up my full time job in international community development. Over a decade in the industry, working on over 30 projects spanning from Eastern Africa to Indonesia, Papua New Guinea and Fiji, completing two undergraduate degrees and two postgraduate degrees in this field – and I’ve now wrapped my full time dedication to this work.
Why?
Because I felt the STRONG pull of a higher octave that my soul wanted to reside in. A place that felt far beyond the realms of what I had cultivated and craved for my life in the years past. A path that I carved out for myself.
I have had the most amazing, life-changing, inspiring, and mind-stretching time working in international development – it has truly been an utter treat. But for the past three and a half years, since launching my blog and taking consistent steps towards discovering more of who I TRULY am, another vocation began to call me strongly. My soul slowly unfurled and I began to feel a sense of fulfilment I never had previously.
I was first pulled towards the field of international development in the way that many in the industry are. I felt like I needed to help save the world. The horrendous external conditions many on our planet suffer, tugged at my heart strings hard – and I lassoed myself in the direction of ‘making things better’ for the planet and her inhabitants. Little did I know that in projecting my own internal brokenness, fear, pity and frustration on to the world, I’d come back full circle and discover my REAL work was actually inside me. The discovery that my external world and how I felt about it, was directly influenced by how things were for me internally, woke me up to where my true work resided.
I had been working on ’empowering’ other people around the world, when the person I really needed to empower was myself. And through my own healing journey, I fell into my zone of genius – walking with and supporting other women through their own self-healing.
It was in the book, The Big Leap, by Gay Hendricks that I first heard of the term ‘zone of genius’ – where your greatest passion meets your innate talent. I also like to call it, ‘that thing you’d do all day for free, that lights you up like a Christmas tree’ (check out my kickass poetry, you guys). Well I felt that zone of genius slowly begin to reveal itself to me over the last few years, as I followed my intuition, heart-first, into discovering what I was made of, in every sense of the word. What I discovered blew my mind and radically expanded my horizon.
Three Signs
Speaking with a beloved mentor of mine late last week, in light of my impending big leap into the unknown, we explored the concept of ‘the right time’ to fully commit to our soul’s calling (and *just quietly* that now is really my time to do this).
So how do we know when this is? Are there any clear signals? I think there are a few.
Here are some of the signs I began to notice in myself before I knew I couldn’t ignore it anymore.
Three signs you need to FULLY commit to yourself and your soul purpose:
- You’re feeling drained and depleted: Despite what society can sometimes condition us to believe, we are not supposed to operate in a drained and dried up state on a daily basis. If we’re struggling to get through the day, and it feels like we’re constantly trudging through thigh-deep mud, staring at the clock and willing it to be five o’clock already – this is a sign we are doing something, or things, that are really not congruent with our soul purpose. When we’re channelling energy into an endeavour that’s in alignment with our soul, wild horses can’t drag us away from what we’re doing. It’s energising, not depleting. For reals. I only JUST watched this week’s epic Game of Thrones episode, after being fully immersed in course creation for The Fulfilled Feminine Formula (coming soooooon!). Now that’s saying something.
- You’re resenting and being triggered by people who are in alignment with their soul work: I have many beautiful examples of aligned and soul-driven women around me and in my circles. They do what truly lights them up and many of them also left high-powered / high-profile j-o-bs to follow their calling. I found myself becoming increasingly triggered by what they were doing in the world – something that I was only really able to do with a tiny slice of my time. And I know that anyone I’m triggered by, is reflecting back to me what I need to accept and integrate within me (both the light and the dark they exhibit). In these cases is a very clear signal of what I really wanted my life to look like.
- You’re numbing out, ignoring your soul nudges and playing small (when you know you need to play bigger with your life): We all have our ways of numbing out, ways in which we veer downwards in vibration and don’t want to face what’s really going on. I do this by binge-watching shows, sleeping too long, and getting ‘busy’ filling my life with trivial things I need to attend to. One of my intentions for this year was to stop ‘playing small’ and go all in with my soul work, after a year of dancing around the fringes of my heart’s desires. But gosh if it wasn’t a painful process of realisation that I actually needed to EARTH all of my ideas and bring them into reality that sent me into a binge-watching marathon! What if it all falls flat? Gaaaah. It all seemed too hard and scary, and I became very deft at convincing myself that this important work could wait until after I watched one more episode of Orange is the New Black. Resistance is a cunning beast. It wasn’t until I dived within to see what the heck was going on that I realised the scared part of me just needed a little lovin’ care and attention – and an assurance that fear and resistance was just a sign that I’m on the right track.
If you find yourself the proud owner of any of the above feeling states, I’d love to encourage you to tune into what the next right step is for you. Set your intention to come into alignment with who you truly are, and what lights you up. State it out loud, write it down in a journal (or heck just on the back of a receipt) – but really EARTH it and bring it out of your head. Then open up to the avenues and possibilities that present themselves to you. And they will – you just need to look out for them. Tune into what your intuition is telling you to do. Drop into your heart and out of your head and FEEL into what’s right for you.
Discovering your soul’s purpose is as easy and as hard as allowing yourself to discover who you truly are – and living from your soul’s truth every day.
2016’s Energy
The energies of 2016 are of the ‘manifest thick and fast’ variety. We’re quickly calling things into our lives with this energy, and timelines are chopping and changing as quickly as we change our thoughts about something. You can create a new reality for yourself within just a heartbeat of intention. The energy forecast for 2017 is that this ‘manifesting fast’ energy is going to ease off and allow us to coast in whatever direction or frequency level we’ve set ourselves up for this year.
This time is an energy portal that’s ours for the taking, basically, and it’s calling on us to go FULL OUT and ALL IN, like a surfer paddling her heart out to to catch a massive wave. How high are you going to let yourself go? Can you be brave enough to align with your highest potential?
If you’re feeling the pull to activate and align with your highest timeline this year, I’m opening up just TWO spots (first in, first served!) right now for my exclusive 1:1 Private Mentoring for Women, available to you, even if you don’t live in Brisbane – thanks to skype!
If this makes your heart leap or calls to you in any way – I would love for you to apply and we can set up a complimentary 20 minute skype session. Drop me a line at [email protected] or check out my 1:1 Private Mentoring page. My clients have been having the most AMAZING results of late (think – healing ancient mother-line wounds, instantly manifesting new houses, jobs, and calling in serious abundance. YAAAAAS!) and I’d love to see the same for you! Let’s have some fun together.
“In short, this girl is a gem! Carly stepped into my life at a time of imbalance and desire for spiritual growth. With her pure energy, she created a safe space of trust and openness for me. Her gentle guidance, coupled with profound wisdom and intuition gave me the opportunity to reconnect fully with myself. Sessions with her during our three months together were filled with inspiring and transformational concepts. This radiant soul brings light wherever she is and celebrates everyone around her. The experience of working with Carly was invaluable.” – Philippa A, Brisbane.“