PYG 116: Callings call

Why does it even matter whether or not you package your genius?

Who cares if you explore what you’re meant to do?

What difference does it make if you don’t share your genius with others?

Those are the questions I want to explore with you today. Because before I can make the case that you should package your genius, you should first understand what’s at stake if you don’t.

I believe the mandate of being human – what’s written in our genetic code or whatever makes us homo sapiens vs some other species – is to find what we were put on this Earth to do. Your mandate as a human is to fulfill the assignment and complete the mission for your specific journey, your specific life.

That is what I whole-heartedly believe.

But if we’re honest with ourselves, our life missions have likely been evident since childhood or adolescence. We’ve heard the call. But how many of us answered and chose to walk down the path our calling was leading us to?

I can remember being a student in middle school and then again in high school. I loved my English classes. My classmates and teachers were all convinced that one day I’d be a famous, important writer whose words would touch millions of people.

Somewhere along the way, I bought into the idea of “the starving artist” and decided I couldn’t be a successful writer without starving first. So while I always knew that I was sent here to write, for years I didn’t do it.

Can I tell you, that despite my successes as a PR person and a coach, until I finally sat down and wrote Package Your Genius I didn’t feel at home in my success? There was always this lingering static – I can’t quite describe it – but it was like a cloud hanging over me. And it was as if the cloud was saying “I mean, this is nice and everything…but when are you going to write your book????” As if nothing else I’d done mattered for real.

And then once I got that book out there, just like that, the dissonance cleared. The cloud passed.

Now, I will be honest. The dissonance is definitely back. But this time I’m crystal clear on why. I know I have more books to write. I know I have more messages to leave this planet while I still have an Earthly vessel that can help me accomplish what I’m here to do in this realm.

Callings call.

So expect it to feel a little uncomfortable when you’re not picking up the phone.

It’s like that feeling that you forgot to do something important, but you can’t quite put your finger on what that something is. Or when you make out your list for the store, and you go and you shop, but you know there’s something you forgot – even though you got every single thing on the list – something is still missing?

It’s like that.

And answering the call is the opposite. Instead, it’s the feeling of a stocked pantry, or of all the bills being paid, or all the doctor’s appointments scheduled – the feeling that nothing is falling through the cracks.

But when you willingly deny yourself the opportunity to answer the call or, to use my term, “package your genius” you create an internal sense of restlessness that will haunt you.

And that restlessness will continue to haunt you until you honor – in some way – what you were put here to do.

Restless.

Unsettled.

Uneasy.

Until you pick up, you may not be able to put your finger on it, but you’ll always get the sense that SOMETHING is missing.

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Got dissonance? I would love to help you clear it.

Check out Package Your Genius if you haven’t read it yet.

Pick up the companion workbook – a tool I made to help you think through the questions that can help you get closer.

If you need help remembering how to answer the call, I’d be honored to support you this fall in Package Your Genius Academy. Visit the site to learn more and apply.