What are you meant to be doing with your life? This is an important question because when we live contrary to our nature, something within us feels wrong. We may be successful, comfortable and financially secure, yet still feel a sense of emptiness — as if something is missing.
I know this because I experienced it myself.
Many years ago, before discovering Vedanta, I was a fashion designer on Queensland’s Gold Coast. I was in my twenties and from the outside, everything looked fine — but I wasn’t happy.
Then I travelled to Perth, where I was introduced to Vedanta — and I immediately knew this was the next step I needed to take. It was what I was meant to do.
In Sanskrit, there is a beautiful word: Svadharma. Sva means one’s own, and Dharma means nature. Svadharma means one’s own nature. Paradharma means alien nature, something that isn’t your own.
We know when we are doing something that is alien to our nature. We may try to convince ourselves otherwise, but somewhere deep within, we know.
So now what we need to do is find out what is my nature. Who am I meant to be? What was I born to do? So we ask ourselves these questions first thing in the morning,
when the world is quiet, before anybody else has woken up
What was I born to do? What makes my heart sing? What makes me feel alive? What am I naturally drawn towards? What makes me feel that I am completely in my element?
The answers may not come immediately. Give yourself time.
You are trying to discover something that may have been buried beneath years of conditioning, expectations, responsibilities and other people’s ideas about what you should be doing.
Don’t Make a Sudden Change
Be Practical. Don’t make the mistake of thinking you have to change your entire life tomorrow. Don’t quit your job impulsively. Be intelligent about it.
Suppose you’re working as a bank teller, but love the idea of becoming a writer. Don’t simply walk into the bank tomorrow and resign.
Make writing your goal. Then ask yourself:
What steps do I need to take to become a writer?
Perhaps the first step is starting a Substack. So you start writing. And you keep writing. You learn, improve — and develop your craft. You do it consistently and intelligently while continuing your current employment.
Your current job is a stepping stone toward funding your freedom.
Perhaps after six months to a year, your writing begins to take shape. Eventually, your bank job might become part-time while your writing becomes more of a full-time commitment.
Let the transition happen gradually. Don’t force it.
Life is not meant to be disrupted by impulsive decisions. We need both aspiration and common sense. Give yourself a direction, make a plan, and take one step at a time.
Right Action
There is another essential element here: right action. Knowing your nature, Svadharma, is one thing. Living it is another. Once you have found your direction, you need to learn how to act correctly.
Right action means giving your full attention to the task in front of you, without allowing the mind to constantly slip back into past worries or project into future anxieties.
Don’t obsess over whether you will succeed. You simply do what needs to be done. You work wholeheartedly, intelligently and diligently — and remain unconcerned about the results.
This is the attitude taught in the Bhagavad Gita. Your responsibility is to perform the action. The result is not entirely in your hands.
So if you have discovered that you are meant to write, then write. If you are meant to teach, teach. If you are meant to preach, preach. Do the work because it is your nature to do it — not merely because you hope for recognition, money or success.
The Higher Purpose
But there is something deeper still. Your nature, Svadharma, is not the ultimate purpose of your existence.
If you discover that your nature is to write, then writing is not the final destination. If your nature is art, art is not the final destination. If your nature is teaching, teaching is not the final destination.
The work becomes a vehicle. A means through which you can contribute something beyond your own self-interest. This is where personal fulfilment becomes something greater than simply “doing what makes me happy.”
Use your nature to contribute to the world. Your creativity becomes an offering. Your knowledge becomes an offering. Your work becomes an offering.
And gradually, the emphasis shifts from: “What can I get?” to “What can I give?”
That shift makes all the difference. Because excessive self-concern keeps us trapped in ego. We are constantly thinking about me — my happiness, my success, my recognition, my security, my results.
But when we dedicate our actions to something greater than ourselves, the ego begins to dissolve. We become less self-absorbed and more peaceful, content, and fulfilled.
Living Against Your Nature
If you spend your life doing something alien to your nature, you may accumulate money, possessions and achievements, but inwardly you will still feel incomplete.
I know what that feels like. Remaining in fashion design would probably have been financially easier than leaving it all behind to study Vedanta. Choosing Vedanta was the harder road — and definitely the one less travelled.
For six years, while all my friends were earning good salaries, I had no income.
The Vedanta Academy was a spiritual boot camp: up at 4am, spiritual studies, two lectures a day, group discussions, yoga, a vegan diet and more study. It wasn’t easy. But it was the right thing for me.
An important thing to remember when torn between two things, for example, fashion design and a life dedicated to philosophy:
“Choose the subtler of the two.”
Choose the higher. Choose the nobler. Choose the path that takes you closer to who you really are.
I chose the subtler, and that decision changed my life.
The Bhagavad Gita expresses this principle beautifully: what may seem difficult in the beginning can become nectar in the end, while what appears pleasurable at first can ultimately become poison.
The easier path is not necessarily the right path. Sometimes the path that demands more of us is precisely the path that gives us more.
Discover Your Nature
If you don’t know your purpose, start questioning. Find a quiet place at a quiet time, where you won’t be interrupted — and contemplate. Ask yourself:
What did you love to do as a child? If you can’t remember, then ask your family and relatives. They might be able to help.
What were you born to do? It could be anything — art, music, cooking, design, teaching, writing, sport, etcetera.
What is the one thing that makes you truly happy? Superficial answers won’t cut it. The truth lies deep within you.
What makes you feel like you are in your element?
What makes you come alive and feel great about yourself?
What makes you feel like you couldn’t be doing anything else?
Who inspires you? List the qualities that you admire in others. What you respect is what you already have. It’s just a matter of drawing them out of yourself.
What activities make you lose track of time?
If you were to teach something, what would it be?
Imagine yourself at 85; what would you regret not having done in your life?
Imagine you have only a few months to live. What would you do?
What would you like people to say about you when you’re gone?
Once you discover your nature, Svadharma, make it a goal. Plan. Prepare. Take small, intelligent steps. While you take those steps, perform your current work properly.
Don’t despise the job you have now because it isn’t your ultimate destination. Use it. Do it well. Let it support you as you build towards something more suited to your nature. Then, when you are ready, make the transition.
Step by step, you move towards what you are meant to be doing.
All the best.
Thank you for reading and watching.
Till next time, Be Well, Meredith ∞ The Elder Sage
Last week’s post revised and rewritten :
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