Life is what happens
when you’re busy making other plans.
- John Lennon

Hello and welcome to the March edition of True Callings!

This month’s edition is all about:

• the biggest life-purpose misperception of all time,
• the biggest head-scratcher of all time, and…
• the relief and ease of passage that comes when you finally understand both!

Oh, and be sure to listen (or read the transcript available) all the way to the end for exciting news about a couple of cool things coming up here at True Calling.

Download a transcript of today’s episode here.

As always, we’d love to hear from you: feedback, praise, comments, praise, other points of view, praise… You get the gist. After all, this is a conversation - and what you have to say is half the fun!

Don’t feel like writing (which, by the way, takes just a click of the COMMENTS link below)?

Call our comments line instead, and really talk to us.
(214) 615-6505 ext 4678

It’s in every comic book. It’s even in every love story (bodice rippers included). In fact, it’s in almost every story ever written.

Some version of the mythological (and, some say, spiritual) hero’s journey.

Where ordinary people are asked (by circumstances beyond their own control) to do something that challenges them - something that shakes up their sense of who they are; what they’re capable of, what their life’s really about.

And every True Calling has some of that age-old story in it.

Problem is it often confuses the daylights out of people, ‘cause what they’re afraid it means to be ‘heroic’ and what it actually means are often two different things.

Which is where (oddly enough) the whole ‘shaken up’ sense of things begins to come into play.

It’s like JJ Abrams said in last episode’s feature video: when it comes to mystery boxes, what you’re actually getting and what you think you’re getting often ain’t the same. And that’s what makes life interesting - when you manage to shift your perception of it!

Speaking of JJ’s video, a big shout out to the winner of our Where’s Waldo – True Callings Clues Contest, Kelli Corcoran. Kelli has won one month’s complementary True Callings Coaching from yours truly! Congratulations Kelli!

Kelli’s list of Callings Clues came the closest to the correct number, which was (drum roll please!)… a whopping 49, which was why the piece blew us away when we first watched it!

Download your own copy of the complete JJ Abrams video Callings Clues list here.

Download a transcript of today’s episode here.

As always, we’d love to hear from you: feedback, praise, comments, praise, other points of view, praise… You get the gist. After all, this is a conversation - and what you have to say is half the fun!

Don’t feel like writing (which, by the way, takes just a click of the COMMENTS link below)?

Call our comments line instead, and really talk to us.
(214) 615-6505 ext 4678

Ever listen to someone who’s completely jazzed about their life talk about it in a way that makes a whole bunch of seemingly ordinary bits and random pieces of living suddenly seem not so random - or so ordinary?

No matter your answer, this wildly fun video by LOST’s creative wunderkind J.J. Abrams demonstrates what we’ve been talking ‘bout for months:

Looking for your True Callings Clues is a little like playing Where’s Waldo: see past the meaningless visual distractions and extraneous clutter, and good old Waldo (aka your True Callings Clues) just pops off the page, obvious and clear.
And once you’ve found him, it’s hard not to see him again, and again, and again…

Listen above to learn more AND hear all the details about our ‘Find The True Callings Clues’ Contest.

Someone’s gonna win big!

As always, we’d love to hear from you: feedback, praise, comments, praise, other points of view, praise… You get the gist. After all, this is a conversation - and what you have to say is half the fun!

Don’t feel like writing (which, by the way, takes just a click of the COMMENTS link below)?

Call our comments line instead, and really talk to us.
(214) 615-6505 ext 4678

A couple of weeks ago - thanks to our new friend Nettie Hartsock - we ran across the amazing True Callings story of business writer, Peter Economy.

Peter made a bold leap 7 years ago from corporate work into the writing life, which all by itself is a great example of answering a calling (if you love this story, stay tuned for more about and from Peter in early 2008).

Just recently though, True Calling came knocking at Peter’s door again, marrying up a couple of his loves and passions, and the whole thing has cranked up his sense of purpose more than a notch or two. Bam!

Ever thought about writing a book? Ever stalled out?

Well, this best-selling writer’s looking for somebody he can write (and publish - he’s got the inside scoop there) a new book with in 2008, absolutely free of charge!

And that’s not all…

Hear all about Peter and his One Year One Book For Free project in this episode of True Callings.

SPECIAL NOTE: Tremendous response to the One Laptop Per Child Foundation’s Give One Get One promotion had them extend it from November 27th right through to December 31st!

You can still join us in supporting this historic program, and in leveling the playing field for kids in developing countries all around the world, by following this link.

Remember the ORDINARY PEOPLE - EXTRAORDINARY LIVES story we ran back in 2005 about Keith Taylor, whose True Calling turned the Tennessee professor into the ’small change philanthropist’?

Well, in just a little over five years, Taylor’s personal mission is now www.ModestNeeds.org, one of the most innovative and highly respected non-profits in the US.

Modest Needs is going so strong - its mission so compelling - that this month two giants of inspired (and inspiring) industry have jumped on board in support (which is what tends to happen when true callings are at work - they incomprehensively attract what they are ready for next)!

Can you guess which two?

Hear all about it - and about how you can participate in this extraordinary mission this holiday season or all year round - by listening.
LEARN MORE BY EXPLORING THESE LINKS:

• https://www.modestneeds.org/starbucks/index.asp
• Modest Needs Chosen by O Magazine as One of December’s Eight Best ‘Give Brilliantly’ Charities!
• Modest Needs Welcomes O Magazine Readers

About 3 years ago, MIT Professor Nicholas Negroponte announced to the world that he intended to build and distribute $100 laptops to every child in third-world nations.

People everywhere told him educating the masses was a genuinely lovely idea but a bit of a Pollyanna-ish, utopian impossibility, all things considered.

Thing is, when a True Calling has its way, nothing’s impossible…

Hear more about it - and about how you can participate in this historic and revolutionary world-wide effort - by listening.
TO LEARN MORE, EXPLORE THESE LINKS:

• http://laptopgiving.org/en/index.php
• Can the $100 Laptop Change the World?
  In this exclusive interview with LAPTOP, Nicholas Negroponte speaks freely on the ambitious One Laptop Per Child Project.
  By Joanna Stern
  Posted: 4/24/2007 on www.laptopmag.com
• New XO LapTop for third world children confirmed ‘world’s greenest’ laptop
  In this piece, the industry itself confirms that the new XO Laptop for third world children is not only the lowest priced laptop in the world, but the greenest too.
  Ars Technica, MA - Oct 22, 2007
• http://www.undertheradarblog.com/wp_blog.html