Heed Your Calling like Dr. Seuss

Positive Leadership
Written By Katharine Smith

A few weeks ago I wrote about the importance of paying attention to what’s calling you - the profound need or problem makes you feel something…and maybe even gasp a little! If you tuned in to your thoughts and discovered that your calling made you a little uncomfortable, that is a good sign!

Perhaps your calling was the same idea that’s been renting space in the back of your mind for years. Perhaps your calling showed up in a moment of pure serendipity that you could not, and cannot, shake off. Well, there is something else to know about your calling…

Your calling doesn’t give a damn about time.

If that sounds a bit harsh, here is what I mean. Your calling doesn’t care if it’s a “good” time for you. Your calling doesn’t care if you have the time to pursue it.

Your calling will wait for you…because it’s yours for a reason, and it’s got nowhere else to be!

I recently stumbled across a quirky little history about how Dr. Seuss came to write The Lorax in 1971. As it turns out, he was called to compose the now-famous environmentalists’ tale long before he actually sat down to write it. It was an idea stuck in his head, even while other books were published.

It wasn’t until he took a trip to Kenya with his wife that he stopped putting it off and paid attention to it. While out on safari, observing some elephants in their natural habitat…

Dr. Seuss let his calling ‘take the wheel’ and he wrote the entire story of The Lorax on the back of a laundry list in just ninety minutes.

Of course, callings are never predictable! (They don’t give a damn about time, remember?) So, what are we to do when we hear them?

Take one, real step to bring it into the light of day.


Say it out loud to someone who matters.

Get it out of your head and into someone else’s, someone who will root for you and for it.

Write or draw a concept related to it.

Artistic skills be damned, just mock up something you can look at, admire, and revisit.

Take one bold action to shorten the distance between you and it.

Imagine you’re already ‘that kind of person’ and do one thing they’d do.

Acknowledging your calling brings you closer to it, but acting on it moves you into meaningful, uncharted territory! So, I challenge you to take one more step!

If you are called to run a marathon someday, run around the block right now. If you are called to write a book someday, write one page of your story right now. If you are called to start your own company, pick up the phone and call your best buddy and make sure they know what’s calling you and why.

Do something right now.

What happens next just might surprise you!

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