What's Your Calling?

Each of us has a call to awaken

Step Two of the Hero's Journey: the Call to Awaken. This call can come in many forms. Some are obvious and life-altering; some evolve over time - a gentle nudge or sense of intuition that tells us that something needs to shift.

We continue to redefine as the world continues to evolve. Return to the office or stay at home? Plan that business trip or vacation, or wait and see? More importantly, am I doing the work – living the life – that I’m meant to?

Do you hear the call?

Are you questioning what's on your path to purpose? You’re not alone. For most people, the past year and a half has brought about life-altering changes. Herminia Ibarra, Organizational Behavior professor at the London Business School, writes about the impact of the pandemic.

“Research on the transformative potential of a catalyzing event like the coronavirus pandemic suggests that we are more likely to make lasting change when we actively engage in a three-part cycle of transition — one that gets us to focus on separation, liminality, and reintegration.”

- Herminia Ibarra, HBR.org

Dr. Ibarra’s model helps us understand how to make the most of this disruption. Whether the pandemic has felt like a call to awaken for you or not, looking at the last 18+ months through Dr. Ibarra's lens can help you focus, and consciously consider how you move into the future.

Ibarra's three phases of transition:

Separation

This concept is about being physically removed from the people and places that form your habits. When you're distanced from your “normal,” you don’t fall into your normal habits. If you're on a journey of change, Dr. Ibarra recommends maintaining a distance from your old networks and patterns so you can focus on your reinvention.

Liminality

Meaning the “space in between.” The newfound space and time created by separation offers the opportunity to develop new skills, and experiment with new activities. Take advantage of this time.

A recent poll asked what new habit you'd developed during the pandemic that you intend to keep going forward. Answers ranged from connecting with relatives across the country on a weekly zoom call, to in-home workouts, to better eating habits. So many people have used this in-between time to build healthy new practices. My response, by the way: daily end-of-day visits with my husband…a conscious transition from "work time" to "home time", which can be a challenge when it all happens under the same roof!

The in-between space has created opportunities to build lasting change.

Reintegration

Reintegration can be passive, almost unconscious, or, if you’re paying attention, can be a catalyst to the change you seek.

None of us knows what to expect as we return to the office, which can be unsettling. We like predictability, order, definition. A quick Google search generated almost three billion responses in .81 seconds to the question of “what will happen as people return to work”. 2020 data from the World Bank tells us that the global labor force is just under 3.4 billion people. Clearly, this question is on our minds!

As you look at the remainder of the year, consider your catalyzing event - your call to awaken. Will you answer the call?