Ep. 8: Living Your Purpose Across Professions

Sonja: Hey, everyone, thanks so much for tuning in today. I actually want to talk about purpose. I purposefully want to talk about purpose and why the topic of purpose, and if you are living in your purpose, if you are living out your purpose, excuse me, why this is so challenging and seems like the most elusive thing to capture. And why it’s actually really simple to uncover. Because I don’t want to say to find because really it isn’t lost. And I’ll get into that within our conversation.

But I’m getting ready to write out an email. And I’m, I’ve really been wanting to sort of do a class or have a conversation about this and I still might. So keep your keep your eyes and ears open to see that coming out soon.

But, yeah, let’s talk about purpose and why it seems very elusive. Why it seems like it’s the most difficult thing to find. And I just really want to break down what it means in the context of like, live your purpose. You know, happiness is on the other side of your purpose. 

So, first of all, in the context of this chat when I’m talking about purpose, I am talking about the sort of spiritual reason that you exist in this physical plane and sort of what you are here to add to the conversation, to the collective of people, to the energy of the world, just through your existence. That’s what I’m talking about when I’m talking about purpose in this conversation.

If you were paying attention right there, you might have noticed that I did not mention what you do. And did not mention that your purpose has something to do with the work you do in the world. And that was very purposeful and intentional on my part, because the biggest myth that most people have or have been conditioned to believe is that our purpose is naturally into intertwined entangled into our work. So your purpose is what you are here to do in the world. That is true, but do also is be in this context. Right? 

So, the doing of when you say your purpose is what you’re here to do, it doesn’t mean your occupation. Let me give you an example. My purpose, or 1 aspect of my purpose, I should say, is to basically have a lot of experiences just for this for the shit and giggles sake of having experiences that I then can share with others.

And when I have these experiences, I have a certain way of being able to to share them with people. And for some reason, the Creator made it that when I share my experiences with people, they become inspired and less afraid to have their own experiences. So that doesn’t necessarily mean they have the same exact experience that I do. But it’s usually like within the same wheelhouse. 

So, for example, because I have had multiple businesses and starting from the time I was 18, owning multiple businesses without taking out business loans, owning multiple businesses without, you know, hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of capital, having successful businesses that didn’t, you know, rely on… well, at that time, social media was not really a thing. We were just coming into it. 

But all that that example from a business lens, me having those experiences, they served a purpose for me, but they also give me the ability to share that with others. And now they become less afraid to start their business, even though they don’t have, even though, you know, they have young children, even though whatever the circumstance is.

Now, you might be saying, well, Sonja, can’t everybody do that? Well, everybody is going to have experiences, but everybody’s purpose isn’t to have those experiences sort of for the, for the cause, like, for the whole, like, the whole purpose. We’re on purpose today. The whole purpose of that purpose, or the whole purpose of having those experiences isn’t necessarily that other people can be inspired and become less afraid to do certain things. Like, that is part of my DNA genetically God created blueprint. Right? And I’ll talk about how I know that, but that is one of my purposes. 

So I don’t have to have a bit, I don’t have to be an entrepreneur in order to live out that purpose, because there are other experiences that I have. There are experiences in motherhood. There are experiences of, of, you know, emotional deconditioning. There are experiences of learning how to be enjoyed, right, that have nothing to do with the work that I do in the world. 

So, just to recap on that point, your purpose is about what you are uniquely here to give, to share, to add to the collective, the energy, all of humanity, that is what purpose is and it does not have to be related to the work you do in the world.

So this notion, one of the, I feel like, especially now in the last like decade with the social media boom with the pandemic and a lot of people becoming entrepreneurs, while that is great and people can see their potential outside of being an employee for someone else, everybody’s purpose is not to be an entrepreneur. Everybody’s purpose is not entangled in being a CEO. Everybody’s purpose is not entangled in being an employee. 

Everybody’s purpose is like, there’s no like, well, your purpose, therefore, right? There are levels to this shit. And I mean, life. And just because there are levels, there’s no hierarchy, there’s just, maybe it’s, there’s categories to this shit, maybe that’s how I should have said it, right? 

There are categories to this shit, and there’s no category that’s better than the other. All of these categories work together, all of these different purposes are like ingredients to a sauce. If everybody’s trying to be oregano in a spaghetti sauce, right? If everybody’s trying to be oregano purpose in a spaghetti sauce, we about to have a very, very antiseptic, you know, and germ fighting, but very unbalanced spaghetti sauce. Y’all following me? 

So, your purpose does not have to be, for most people, it is not going to be intertwined into your work and especially doesn’t mean you need to be an entrepreneur because you have a certain purpose and you can’t do that in a job. You need to do that within your own business. Which leads me to my next point.

You can express your purpose and be in your purpose regardless of what job you do. I’m gonna say that again. You can absolutely be in purpose and live your purpose regardless of whatever type of job or career profession that you have or any way that you experience life. So for those of you who are stay at home parents and you don’t have a outside the home profession, you can still be in your purpose whether you have a profession or not.

So that means you can take a lot of pressure off of trying to figure out what your purpose is. Because then when you know what your purpose is now, you can go make a job out of that. And as a matter of fact, I feel boldly enough to to empower those of you where that is the case where your purpose is not necessarily to be in entrepreneurship or, you know, in a high level business. Quote, unquote stature. I feel like that’s just almost a little bit more important. 

I think as the paradigm continues to shift, as we continue to move forward in humanity, which is really starting to look like we’re going backwards. Going back to to roots, right? Because I think we’ve gone so far into another place where it’s like, yeah, let’s get a little bit back to center. I think we’ll find that those who are being in their purpose and doing a lot of individual work, healing, coaching, ministering, raising, teaching, our work is, is going to become more of the sought out, you know, highly regarded type of work that it once was when I talk about like the beginning of time.

Those were the people that we admired. Those were the people that we looked to and look, look towards, right, for inspiration. Not celebrities, not because celebrities are bad people, but not celebrity because some entity said like, oh, this is a great let’s let’s this is a great, like, I don’t want to say distraction because I don’t want to take away from somebody’s gifts and talents. Right? 

But we all know that there’s definitely vehicles that propel the image of others and maybe take advantage of their gifts and talents or the purposes of guiding the rest of us. And that’s the best way I can say it, because I really don’t, it’s not about the individual and, like, they’re not doing what they’re supposed to do and all of that. 

It’s just more of, like, saying that, I think that we will get back to a time where the people who are working as a profession in the healing arts, the teaching arts, the ministry, you know, those types of gifts are going to be revered in the way that currently, and for the last, like, 100 years, it’s been all about the celebrity ism, the influencer ism, which that’ll be interesting to see how that plays out. I, you know, inshallah be here to see that. 

Okay. So, now that we’ve determined that what purpose is, and also that your purpose does not have to and is not, it is not, what’s the word I’m looking for? It’s not bound by what you do in the world. Right? And, you know, that you can be in purpose doing anything, right? 

You can be in purpose, and you can be living out your purpose talking to someone at the grocery store. You can be in purpose and living your purpose working at Chick-fil-a. You can be in your purpose and showing compassion to the unhoused person that you walk past. Like, our purposes are so unique and so individual, but they’re not hard to figure out. They’re not hard to figure out.

How do I know this is because I actually found two ways. Well, there’s, there’s lots of different ways, but there were two ways that really resonated with me. And you know, who knew they were like sitting right under my nose the whole time. 

And when I really tapped into it and discovered, you know, uncovered, I should say, uncovered, rediscovered, like, and got into, you know, actually reconnecting with my purpose through doing just a really simple self awareness work and using a couple of really simple tools, it was, it was really like mind blowing and life changing.

For me finding my purpose or reconnecting with my purpose really allowed for me to just relax, like for real, for real, like really relax about all the things that I was doing, not feel or shame myself or guilt myself for For instance, doing a lot of different things, right?

Like, oh, well, you know, I should just have 1 thing, or I should just, you know, I need to figure out that thing. For me, understanding that my purpose was literally the opposite of Find a thing and stick to it was very freeing. It was like, Oh my gosh. Like, Oh, okay. Okay. That’s what the hell I’m supposed to be doing.

Which takes me to my next point. You, if nothing else, you can pay attention to the things do you do that. I don’t want to sound like Marie Kondo, but honestly, that really sparked joy for you, either in the doing of that particular thing, or the moment of that experience, or the moment of those feelings, or in the sort of aftermath of that thing you did, or that experience you had for those feelings. Because when you can make the correlation, when you can start to notice like, oh, oh, like, yeah, oh, those are the things those are like the breadcrumbs that can help you rediscover or uncover, reconnect with your own individual purpose as well. 

Now, inside of my coaching, whether it’s 1 on 1, and also within my signature group coaching program, I actually walk people through an even simpler way where they can uncover their purpose and look at it from a couple of different lenses. And they get to decide through their body, through the feeling, through just a knowing which of, you know, these techniques or with perspectives they connect with.

Because although they’re ultimately saying the same things, I have found that based on who we are, right? We’re different types of learners. We all hear the same words differently. We absorb and filter these words, or these experiences differently. And so, because of that, I don’t just go with like, 1 tool and say, okay, based on this, this is this is your purpose now. Whether or not you like it, this is it, girl. This is it, guy. Go with it, right? 

I like to share perspectives, which is one of my other natural gifts, but one of the other like ingredients of my purpose is perspective, is large view. Not necessarily innovative vision, but the ability to, oh, this is what this is what you’re considering. This is what you’re thinking. This is what is coming up for you. Okay. wide lens, this, this, this, this, this, this, there’s all these different things where you might just see 1, right? 

And so I use a couple of different tools that I share with my clients and they’re able to uncover or connect with 1 of these perspectives on their purpose really quickly. I’m talking like. In less than 15 minutes, like, really, like, 5 minutes, it’s like, oh, wow. You know, every time it’s like, as soon as we go through it, it’s like, they lean back in their chair and they’re like, oh my gosh, you know, you just read me like, I resonate so much with that. 

Now, that’s the simple part, right? It’s the awareness is really probably the easier part. And what I do with my clients and through my coaching is try to walk with them step by step throughout their process, their, their self discovery journey through taking inspired action towards their desires. Stand by them with them, in relation to them, and in energetic realm that they’re in as they go through this process so that I become this reminder sort of like this light of this beacon of like, oh, remember purpose, right?

And not in a, hey, this is you got to do it this way because that’s your purpose. Just, Oh, this is what we recommend. How’s that going? You know, now you can take this understanding that you have about your purpose and manifest whatever you desire in the moment. Whatever is called, whatever you feel called to. Our purpose lies in that, too, and that’s another great place. 

If you, if you’re not quite ready to work with me and coaching, that’s a great place for you to look to, like, what do you feel called to? And try to judge it, there’s no right or wrong way for you to be in purpose. I guarantee if you just are moving in alignment. If every day you are just moving in the alignment of who you have authentically been created to be, you cannot not be in purpose.

But are you okay with it? Can you be okay with it? Can you embrace your purpose? Can you not guilt yourself based on your purpose? Can you not make purpose feel like another thing you got to do, because it shouldn’t feel like that. It’s not, it’s it’s that’s… if you’re feeling like that, if trying to discover, and I know many of you do, because I felt like that felt a lot of pressure for a long time about knowing what my purpose was, because I needed to know the purpose so that I could do it right.

And I just want to free you real quick that if that is how you are feeling, and that’s how you are approaching learning what your purpose is, or, you know, if you already have that awareness and you’re out here trying to make sure you do it right, I want to encourage you to be a little more kind to yourself. And if you don’t have the capacity to do that, then you want to be in a community in an environment where you can be reminded of that and guided to that. 

If you want to do that, I encourage you to book a call with me. Let’s discuss coaching. Let’s discuss what it could look like for you. Let’s discuss where you’re at in your journey of purpose, your journey of living the successful life that you envision and how I can help you create a holistic map that’s going to be really easy for you to follow because it’s going to be from you. It’s going to be about what you want and using a strategy, a strategy, excuse me, that you already have in you.

Not my strategy, but I’m going to teach you how to use your strategy in order to get everything that you were designed to experience in this life. Everything that you feel called to, because if you feel called to it, that is, that is for you. If you have a deep desire for it, that is already for you. You do not have callings. You do not have desires for things that you cannot complete. 

If you feel curious right now and just want to know what that could look like for you, I encourage you go to sonjathompkins.com/book and schedule a call with me to discuss coaching. Talk with you soon. Bye.