Ask yourself this question.

 Ask yourself this question. Write down the answer that pops into your head. Do not filter or question what comes to your mind. Ready?

 Who are you jealous of?

 Jealousy isn’t a fun emotion, I would put it in the Top Ten list of most-difficult-to-feel emotions. In this case it has something to teach us. Who you are jealous of can be a pointer to where you want to head next.

 Every human being has talents and gifts to offer while they are here; if those gifts aren’t discovered and put to use, they’re lost forever, and the history of the world is changed.

 Now, if your answer had to do with money or fame, go back and inquire again. You probably aren’t there yet. Here’s how you will know if you hit the mark: as you ponder the person that came to mind, you will notice yourself feeling uncomfortable or puzzled. Stick with it. That discomfort is a sign that you are onto something.

I am embarrassed to write this, but when I inquired of myself who I was jealous of, the first answer I got was Ghandi. Yeah, I know. Ghandi! (Groan.) I didn’t know much about him, so why Ghandi? Right from the start I felt uncomfortable with my answer and decided to experiment with it and see what I learned.

So, I read some books on his life, I re-watched that movie, I read a book he wrote on the Bhagavad Gita. And the more I dove in, the more uncomfortable I felt. Until I got to this quote he is known to have said: “If you think you can separate faith and politics, you don’t understand faith.” That brought to mind my own version of this quote: “If you think you can leave your faith at the door of your business, you don’t understand faith.” That, in a nutshell, is one reason I have launched and am running a start up – to build a company based on what I believe and living it, even at the risk of being misunderstood. I’m not done understanding why Ghandi showed up as an answer to this question, but early exploring has proven enlightening. His life was a living experiment of his faith, he lived surrendered to God, he experienced great peace and great joy. All of which inspire me, and nudge me to sara.next.

In this world that is so focused on degrees, letters that follow our names (M.D., MBA, JD, CISSP, EIEIO), titles and zip codes, no one tells us that the true work of a lifetime is uncovering who we really are and having the courage to be that.

When you ask yourself this jealousy question, it can inform you about a direction that in your soul you really want to take. It very likely won’t make rational sense, but it very, very likely will make gut level, or heart level, sense.

Try it out. Stick with it and inquire what it might mean about this next step of your life.