Living your life’s purpose doesn’t have to be this huge apocalyptic event in your life. You don’t have to quit your job and cut off all your connections in order to get closer to your life’s goal. You can start with what you have right now. 

So many of my clients felt stuck in this limbo of wanting to live for their purpose but not wanting to give up their whole lives for it. And the funny thing is, they never had to! Burning down your old life is not a requirement for starting your new one. You can start your business while you work your day job. You can write your book without getting an MFA first. You can do it, you just have to start. 

In this week’s episode, we’re going to be talking about how you can live your life’s purpose right now –  no drastic changes required. Drastic changes in your life like quitting your job or getting an MFA are not what’s going to align you with your life’s purpose. What will align with your life’s purpose is taking it one step at a time. 

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http://www.theerikacruz.com

How to work with Erika:

Sign up for the “The Purpose Pivot” webinar here.

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Podcast production for this episode was provided by CCST.

Episode Transcript:

Erika: Hello, hello. Welcome back to this week’s episode of Chingona Revolution podcast. Have you ever found yourself in a situation where you Are wondering why you feel like you lack fulfillment or you lack happiness, even though on paper, your life looks great or on paper, your job looks great, everything looks great, and you do have a lot to be grateful for.

But yet you feel like something is missing. I guarantee you most of you are like, yep, uh huh. And I just want you to know that you are not alone. It is. A natural human thing to believe that once we have achieved the things that we are looking to achieve that we are going to feel happiness and that we are going to feel fulfillment and I am no exception.

I remember when I was. in high school. I wasn’t even sure if I was going to go to college, but I ended up going to community college and then things kind of shifted for me there. And I remember thinking, Oh, once I get into a good school, then I’m going to be happy. Then I’m going to feel fulfilled. And then I got into a school, and I got into a pretty good school.

And then once I got to the school, I was like, Okay, once I graduate, And then once I graduated, it was like, no, once I find a job and then I got a job and I was one of the few Latinas working at my tech company and then I was like, Nope, still don’t feel fulfilled. Still don’t feel happy. Once I make six figures, then everything’s going to be good.

And then what happened? I started to make six figures and instead of feeling. fulfillment and abundant and happiness. I actually felt the most amount of imposter syndrome. I was like, what if they fire me now? Because now I’m not cheap labor. Now I’m a six figure employee. Am I contributing enough? Now they’re going to be looking at it.

It was like, I was literally paranoid. So rather than enjoying More pay it actually did the opposite and here I am believing that oh once I have that then I’m going to be happy And you know we fall victim of this in so many different areas of our life once my business makes enough money Then everything’s gonna be good or once I find my soulmate everything is going to be good So why is it that sometimes we find ourselves in these situations?

Where, yes, on paper everything looks great, and we logically know that we have a lot to be grateful for, but yet, we feel that we want more. And that is because it is human nature to want more. We’re never going to have everything that we want, because when we have everything we want, there’s going to be more things for us to want.

And you can look at this as a really negative thing, but that’s just part of humanity. We are destined to grow. We are destined to evolve. And that is actually a really beautiful, beautiful thing. With that being said, the reason that we feel Like we lack fulfillment is when we are lacking purpose when we are lacking our life’s assignment our life’s mission.

So maybe you went to school, you got a job, and maybe it’s even a purposeful job, right? Maybe you are a doctor or a lawyer, or maybe you’re working, um. with kids or you know doing something that’s actually really good and it makes you feel good about yourself but it’s not your purpose, we are still going to feel that lack.

We’re still going to feel like something is missing. And then if you find yourself an individual from an underserved community, if your parents Literally didn’t have the opportunity to follow their purpose or to get an education. Then you even feel bad for wanting more. Who am I to want more? I should just be grateful.

And then that shrinking of ourselves, that feeling or that narrative that we have that we should just be grateful makes us keep ourselves Small. And that is what makes us feel like we are lacking purpose and lacking fulfillment because we know we aren’t living our authentic selves. And a lot of times people think, oh, well, if I want to go live my purpose, I have to go throw everything away.

And that’s what this podcast episode is about. I want to debunk that you have to go throw everything away in order to. Live your purpose. You can do your purpose as your work, like I believe I am, but it didn’t start this way. I didn’t always do this as my work, but I was still at some point following my purpose.

So some people will do their life’s work as their main job. Other people will do their main job so that they can live their life’s purpose. And others will turn that purpose into their full time job at some point. But what I really want to talk to you about is our life’s work and our purpose for being on the planet, on the universe, which I can’t tell you what yours is, but what I can tell you from somebody who’s been studying purpose for years, that’s what my group program, Courage Driven Latina, used to be called.

It used to be Purpose Driven Latina until we had a trademark issue. And we actually had to change the name and what I found was once people have some clarity on their purpose then they need the courage to go after it and that’s why we named it Courage Driven Latina. But as somebody who has studied this not only in herself but in hundreds of clients, I can tell you that A lot of times people think, oh, once I find my purpose, then I go after it, but no, you, you go after it and that’s how you find your purpose because your purpose is already within you.

It’s not something that exists outside of you. It’s something that you get to uncover through action. through trying different things and there’s a misconception that in order to find your purpose, you have to go quit your job, cold turkey, and then go start a business or go do these other things. But no, you don’t have to do drastic things like that.

You can, you totally can, but you do not have to. Even if we look at my situation where I was working in the tech industry, and I knew that that wasn’t my purpose, and I knew I wanted to work with my community, I knew I wanted to give back, but I also knew I didn’t want to be a doctor, right? I didn’t want to give back in that way, and at first, the way that I was connecting with my purpose is I started to join diversity, equity, and inclusion groups, DEI.

In the tech industry, because that even though my role had nothing to do with DEI diversity, equity, inclusion, the fact that I was a Latina in tech made me passionate about getting more Latinas in tech. Like I felt purposeful that I was representing my community. So I started to. first get involved in DEI stuff, that’s when I started to attend different conferences and things like that.

I really enjoyed the conferences and from there I was like, I really do want to create. And I think one of the first things I ever created was a LinkedIn article about my experience at a DEI conference. And then it was like re shared by the executives of the company that put that conference together.

And then I was like, I kind of really like this content thing. So I started my food blog. And then from there, um, like my food blog, that is a great example, actually, because that was like my first. Courage project. This food blog, y’all, I overthought for two years before I actually started. But I remember when I was in the tech industry, I would get off of work and I would rush home so that I could hurry up and go bake something or make something for the food blog.

And that gave me purpose. It was what allowed, made my job so much more bearable. And then from there, I became a yoga teacher and then I was like, okay, I’m going to be the Latina yoga teacher. And those of you who listen to every episode, you’re like, damn, Erica, we know your story already. But the point of this story isn’t necessarily the story, but how I didn’t go quit my job to live my purpose.

And you don’t have to go do that either. If you want to ultimately quit your job, you can quit your job. But regardless of your situation, regardless of if you want to be an entrepreneur, if you want to be a content creator, if you want to pivot to a different industry,

You are going to benefit by embedding more purpose into your life right now. 

 So the point I’m making is that you don’t have to make a huge life change in order to start living your purpose. Sometimes all it takes is creating something that feels aligned, whether that is creating content, sharing your voice, maybe writing. It can really just be connecting to some type of creativity and maybe you never share it with the world, or maybe you do, maybe you end up writing a book.

or Let’s say that your goal is to go work for yourself that you don’t want to go work for somebody else the rest of your Life if you know that you want to be an entrepreneur This misconception is out there that oh, I need to go quit my job and then I can start my business No, start it right now Even if it’s just one to two days A week in the evening or on the weekends, start small.

It doesn’t have to be this huge thing. Just working towards it is going to give you something to look forward to. It feels like there’s light at the end of the tunnel. And that’s what happened with me. Whenever the yoga teacher training stuff. I mean, I still went through with it. I still got my yoga teacher certification and I taught for a little bit, but then the pandemic happened and then the yoga studio is all closed.

So it was literally like that opportunity, the door was literally closed in my face. So from there, I just started to create content about self development, about things that I was reading. Yoga principles, mindfulness, a lot of stuff that I did learn in yoga and that is then what led to my business whenever I started hosting these free workshops and people were like, Hey, do you coach?

And then I was like, I don’t even know what a coach is. But then I joined a coaching program and I was like, hell yes, this is exactly what I want to do. And I did both for a while. It’s not like I just. Walked away from the tech job. No, that’s not responsible either. We also have to remember we are living in a capitalistic society whether we like it or not.

Okay, and if you are consuming an iPhone and Sephora products, you’re contributing to capitalism. So, and I’m not saying this to, you know, like speak badly to anybody, but it’s just the fact we do live in a capitalistic society. And if you aren’t making money, you, and if you can’t pay rent, you won’t have a place to live, right?

So why would we put that much stress on your purpose, on your business? Allow yourself to continue to work your job, assuming it’s not completely ruining your, well, assuming it’s not toxic and ruining your mental health, and assuming it’s a safe job. then stick with it because when you have this other thing you’re working towards, it makes the job so much easier.

If that makes sense. I remember I would not look forward to going to work. And then once I started working on this other thing, I’m like, Oh yeah, yeah, I’m going to go get that done. I’m going to get the work stuff done. But I’m really working towards this other thing. And I find that when we are doing things towards our purpose, whether it’s something creative or whether it is working on a side hustle or a business, it just makes us happier right now. Even if you never leave the job, even if the passion project, the creative project, or the side hustle, even if it never turns into anything, it feels fulfilling right now. So this idea of like, oh, I’m waiting for my whole life to be perfect until I feel fulfilled.

We’re doing ourselves a disservice with that. if you are ready to implement purpose into your life and really pivot to purpose, I’m hosting a free webinar on March 5th at 5 p. m. pacific time.

The webinar is titled The Pivot Purpose, Dare to Dream Again and Align Your Career or Your Business with Your Calling in 90 Days. I will be talking about the concept I discussed today, how it is that you can start living your purpose now without making drastic changes to your career or to your life at the moment.

but how you can eventually completely pivot your life’s work to be your purpose. So join me on March 5th and be sure to tell a friend. And if this podcast episode resonated with you, be sure to let me know on Instagram, take a screenshot of this podcast episode and tag me at the Erika Cruz. That’s Erika with a K or Chingona Revolution, because we do have a Instagram page for Chingona Revolution.

Also, if there’s a specific podcast episode you want to hear on the podcast. Send your requests my way. I’m always open to different podcast ideas and I, I do have some videos that are coming up, some record. Oh my gosh, what am I saying? I do have some interviews that are coming up, some exciting interviews and different guests that have not been on the podcast before.

So I’m excited for that. Um, because I know that over the last few months, it’s more just been you and myself here on the podcast, which I absolutely love, but I am ready to bring people who have different areas of expertise and experts in different areas to the podcast. 2025 is a growth year for us, y’all.

I’m so excited. I’m not excited about what’s going on obviously in the political system, but I am excited. I feel like that has lit a fire under my butt to remind me of my purpose and remind me of my why. And remind me why it was that I started this platform in the first place and I am not playing small this year.

We are taking up space. Come with me. I’m going to teach you how on the webinar. The link to register is down below and I can’t wait to see you all there. All right. See you next week.