How to Transition into Your Life’s Work

Not satisfied with your job, but don’t know how to transition into your life’s work? This vlog will show you how to make the shift.

 Transcript download: How to Transition into Your Life’s work

Are you working, but it is not work that brings you any satisfaction? Are you feeling you are missing out on what you most deeply want to do? You’ve had internal nudges but don’t know how to make the transition to the work you really want to do. If this is the case in your life – take heart. This vlog is going to address this problem and show you how to take the steps to create the life and work that you want.

Why We Don’t Begin the Transition

Let’s say you are doing office work but really want to be a massage therapist. You can’t just stop working. How can you take action to begin to make that transition?
Often you feel reluctant to begin. You don’t see how its going to happen. This stops many people from setting a goal they want. The beauty is that you don’t have to see how it is going to happen. No one knows how their goal is going to materialize when they begin to chant about it. It is your job to set the end goal. It is the job of the universe to work out how to get there.
Sometimes you feel reluctant because life is familiar where you are, and you know what to expect. Making the transition seems like heading out over uncharted seas. Better the devil you know than the one you don‘t.

Perhaps you have tried before but there were obstacles which blocked you. If this is the case, take heart. You have the practice now and you will never be deadlocked.

Steps to Move forward with the Transition

Let’s examine how you can use the practice to move forward.

1. Sit down and chant about your goal, seeing yourself as a practicing massage therapist. Let yourself feel how much you want it. Don’t see it as in the future. See it happening in the present. Imagine you are working on your first client.

“Prayers based on the Mystic Law are not abstract. They are a concrete reality in our lives. To offer prayers is to conduct a dialogue,  an exchange with the universe.”         I                Faith Into Action. Daisaku Ikeda

2. Since you have started a dialogue, you will receive a response. Pay attention to any ideas that come to you about next steps, during your chanting time or during the day. An idea might come to you through a subtle internal  nudge to go in one direction or another.

A. An idea might come through synchronicity, a remarkable coincidence which gives you the information you need. Maybe someone you know gives you the information or suggestion for your next step, or a book falls off the shelf at your feet and tells you exactly what you need to hear.
B. Perhaps you have an inspiration

3. Action is a key piece. The universe works through us when we take action. If we are just dreaming and wishing but not taking any steps forward, nothing will happen.
“ Our prayers cannot be answered if we fail to make efforts appropriate to our situation.” Ikeda

There is the story of the rice farmer who prays for an abundant harvest. But he never plants his fields. The practice is not magic. We have to take action and plant our rice.

What Stops Us From Taking Action?

We are trained by our community and the beliefs of everyone around us. They tell us to be realistic and show us our limitations. These beliefs often show us why something can’t be
done.

We believe what we see on the surface of life, our circumstances forgetting that our environment is created from the inside out. You have controls. This surface picture is what
you created from past causes, but it is not fixed. You can create different causes for a different future today. You are the creator and through your Buddha nature you are one with
the creative power of the universe.

Often we don’t take action because of fears. It seems frightening to step out based on faith, when you are used to living based on perceived limitations. What we have to come to
understand, is that each obstacle and challenge is there to strengthen us, to develop our faith and our confidence. They are the steppingstones to Buddhahood, so don’t avoid them. If you opt out, the same challenge will return over and over until you address it.

Be willing to chant for courage. Then quickly take the action.

When You step Forward with Faith, the Path Unfolds

When you have an idea, take the first step even though you can’t see how it is going to work out from there. This is where faith comes in. Move forward even though you don’t see
the way beyond a short distance ahead. The universe works by allowing you to see to the next corner but not beyond. It’s as though the path unfolds under your feet as you move forward.

Doubt is the Killer

Faith is important to the process. The way I see it, when you set a goal and chant about it, you are building the vision of what you want in the invisible world. If you hold to it,
keeping your attention on what you want, the energies become stronger and stronger and at some point materialize in the material world.

If you start to doubt what is happening, then you diminish the strength of what you are building. As Daisaku Ikeda says,
“When your determination changes, everything will begin to move in the direction you
desire. The moment you resolve to be victorious, every nerve and fiber in your being will
immediately orient itself to your success. On the other hand, if you think, “This is never
going to work out,” then at that instant every cell in your being will be deflated and give up
the fight. Then everything will move in the direction of failure.” Faith Into Action, Daisaku Ikeda

I know this can be difficult. Doubt is seductive and seems so real. But the truth is that doubt is a killer and you don’t want to dwell on it. Don’t indulge it. Let the doubt pass through you and then turn your attention back to what you want, your end goal.

A Personal Experience

When I started the practice in 1994, I was a counselor. I had often felt that spirituality should be involved if people were going to be happy. But I felt split. I couldn’t see how
I could ever put my mental health training and spirituality together, as social work licensure only allows certain kinds of work with clients.

Sometime after I started to chant, I had the idea that I should take some writing classes and join a critique group. I enjoyed writing and leaning the ins and outs of becoming a
fiction writer. I was also in the process of proving the practice to myself.

In 2006 I retired from my social work practice. By that time I had seen many people become happy through the practice, had become happy myself and had developed writing skills. Then one day it came to me that I needed to write about the practice, to help introduce new people. I used a scenario, which I had often seen in my counseling practice, to illustrate how the practice works. Soon after writing my books, I started with website to discuss
issues that prevent practitioners from getting benefit with the practice. One day I recognized to my astonishment that I had realized my dream to combining spirituality
and my counseling skills. I had found my unique mission in life.

This can happen for you too. I didn’t consciously chant for it. But if you set this transition as your goal, you will move ahead quickly.

Summary:

Today we discussed how to transition into your life’s work. We talked about the steps to move forward.

1. Chant about your goal letting yourself feel how much you want it. See yourself
doing it in the present.

2. Pay attention to any ideas that come to you since you have started a dialogue with the
universe.

They may come through nudges to do this or that.
Through synchronicity – remarkable coincidences that give you what you need.
Through an inspiration

3. Taking action is a key piece

4. We discussed what stops ups from taking action.

Limiting beliefs
Forgetting our reality is created from the inside out and believing what we see.

Fears

5. When you step forward with faith the path unfolds under your feet

6. Doubt is the killer.

I you liked this vlog give it a thumbs up and share it. Here are some other related blogs you might like.

8 Warning signs You Are Manifesting What You Don’t Want
https://wp.me/p3V1J9-Un

What’s Stopping You From Moving Forward
https://wp.me/p3V1J9-To

Here’s a Method to Handle Fears that Arise While Chanting
https://wp.me/p3V1J9-

Now I want to hear from you.  topics you want to hear about, questions, experiences, what you like or don’t like.  Let me know what you think.

I’ll see you in two weeks.