A dear friend was despairing that she hadn’t yet found her true work in life, her life purpose. I shared with her a beautiful perspective offered by Martia Nelson in her amazing book, Coming Home:

“The yearning to find your true work (or relationship or creativity) is a variation on the desire for true self and is, therefore, another pure state. … It is not so much the marriage of true yearning and knowing, but the marriage of true yearning and Not Knowing that yields the greatest possibility. …

“Not Knowing is not a lack of ideas. It is a clear, pure, natural state of awareness that transcends personality and connects you with unlimited possibility. … In your longing for true work, you are asking for an experience that goes beyond what has previously been your norm. To find it, you must open to a state of awareness that goes beyond what you have previously known. Personality’s knowing automatically screens out possibilities that are unfamiliar. Not Knowing does not limit you to the possibilities your intellect can create or your personality can plan; instead you are open to the unlimited.

“Personality believes that the way to find your new work is to stay in control, in this case to ‘know’ your way there. It is not aware of how much more empowering and enriching it can be to ‘not know’ your way there.”