Mission and medium: two must-haves for purposeful work without burnout

You may have seen this scenario play out. A friend discovers the fascinating world of New Age ideas and modalities, and realizes that she (or he) is here to assist humanity in the Great Awakening, or the Ascension.  And so she enthusiastically joins the movement, takes some classes, starts offering intuitive or healing sessions, and goes all in on her mission of serving humanity, one person at a time.

Fast forward a few years: she is burned out, and she’s quitting her spiritual business.  She may even be questioning the whole mission, since obviously it didn’t make her as happy and fulfilled as she’d thought.  (Gotta admit — I came dangerously close to that point! 😅)

This can happen with other occupations too!  I’m thinking of other folks I know in real life: an exhausted, fed-up nurse, an unfulfilled humanitarian aid worker, a freelance writer overwhelmed by running her business… Just like our spiritual practitioner above, they all found their mission and purpose, gave it their all, but somehow, their day-to-day tasks were slowly killing them.

At times, the reasons for the burnout are financial (try earning a livable income doing one-on-one Tarot readings!), but that’s not what I want to address here.

What happens in a lot of cases is: we got our MISSION right, but we picked the wrong MEDIUM...

The “mission” is our WHY, our underlying motivation: the larger problem we want to help solve, what we desire to change in the world, or what we wish to introduce into human experience.

For instance, we may be motivated by the core desire to assist in the awakening of humanity, or to lessen suffering, create beauty, foster innovation...

The “medium” is our HOW: our tool of choice, our channel, vessel, job role, actual task that we perform to fulfill whatever our mission is.

For example, we may be doing healing work, teaching, writing books, creating art, inventing new technology, fighting legal battles in court, leading a company, or uniting our local community through events.

At the core, the medium is the archetypal energy used and expressed through our activity.

So maybe we decided to do intuitive guidance and healing sessions because it’s a go-to choice for spiritual folks with the mission to awaken humanity.

But if this type of work doesn’t really match our unique energetic design, we’ll eventually burn out and maybe even start resenting the work.

Perhaps our energetic design is such that we should instead be teaching wisdom through writing, or making high-vibrational art, or managing a meditation center... There are many means through which we can fulfill the same mission!

So pick something that gives you energy, not drains it.  Something you would be doing even if there was no purpose behind it at all — because you simply enjoy it.  That’s your natural channel, your right medium.

It’s not necessarily a waste if you’ve spent some time working in a draining, misaligned role. It could have been your “training ground”: an opportunity to gain the knowledge and experience necessary for the next chapter of your work. Or, at the very least, you’ve learned what to avoid in the future! 😉

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The opposite can happen as well: we can be working with the right medium, while lacking a mission.

Let’s say, the lady in our first example quit doing Tarot readings and healing sessions that were exhausting her, and started making websites or writing full-time — because she’s always enjoyed it, it gives her energy and puts her in a state of flow.

After a period of relief, she may start feeling empty writing essays about her childhood or making websites for corporations. The process feels good and aligned, but something’s missing. Perhaps… a meaning? There’s no motivation, no why behind her daily efforts, besides just… being good at the task and enjoying the process.

And there’s nothing wrong with that per se, but it so happens that our pesky human nature needs a why that goes beyond just paying our bills.

Hopefully, our leading lady will then remember the mission she’d abandoned and bring it back into the picture. How? She may dedicate herself to the type of writing that allows her to educate others on spiritual topics and to distill what wisdom she’d gained from doing intuitive/healing work. Or she may use her technical skills to create websites for holistic practitioners and communities, supporting their sacred work and, in doing so, honoring the larger purpose that she shares with them.

Now she’s honoring her original mission, but through a medium that is aligned with her unique energetic design. The result? Meaningful work without burnout.

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So how do we find our MISSION, our WHY, if we don’t have a good sense of it yet?

We can contemplate questions like: What matters the most to me? Which cause do I genuinely care about? What shift is desperately needed in the world? What’s the root cause of many issues we face today, and can I contribute to solving that root issue?

We can also get input from our “higher levels”, like our Higher Self, through an intuitive session or through a process like regression.

And I think it’s okay if the WHY changes as we go through life, or if, over time, we grow deeper in our understanding — and therefore our definition — of our mission.

While our individual mission can be powerful in and of itself, our work can be even more meaningful if it somehow also contributes to a collective mission (which can be anything from the spiritual awakening of humanity, to transforming an industry, to rebuilding a country — there are many worthy causes to pick from!) It’s a great feeling when we know we’ve played our little role in a massive change that so many people want and are working hard towards!

When it comes to figuring out our aligned MEDIUM, the task is somewhat easier. What’s that activity that makes you lose track of time? The skill you’re so effortlessly good at and are always praised for? What gives you energy?

If you’re not sure, there’s a number of helpful modalities that can tell you all about your natural qualities, gifts, strengths, “realms of training”, channels, or whatever term is used by a particular framework. Those characteristics are your medium.

Here are the methods I’ve found the most useful for this:

1) Soul Realignment is a modality that accesses the Soul Blueprint (our unique soul-level design) through the Akashic Records. It offers a very precise breakdown of our primary divine gifts, or soul qualities. How much these gifts are utilized by our main task at work is a predictor of whether we’ll be energized and motivated vs. drained and burned out by the work. This is probably as close as you can get to defining the right medium for your mission.

2) Astrology can also be massively helpful, and it’s even more detailed than the Soul Blueprint, although it looks at us through a very different lens. Our gifts according to astrology won’t always match our soul-level gifts: they might, but they can also complement or contradict the soul qualities. This doesn’t mean one system is “wrong” — the two describe different layers of our Being, and knowing both gives us a more complete picture. Career Astrology is particularly helpful when it comes to choosing aligned work.

3) You may get additional insights through Human Design, Numerology, Enneagram, a Soul Path reading, and so many other methods. Not every system works for every person, so if one modality didn’t offer guidance that you feel comfortable using, try another!

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When it comes to choosing how to fulfill our purpose in life, there’s a number of aspects to consider, from the most sublime soul level down to the practicalities of life, and I tend to get way too technical when it comes to this topic (previous articles on purpose). 😉 It’s easy to get lost in the complexity and all the options available to us these days. But I do believe that if we just get these two things right — our mission and our medium — we’re on the right path, and we can fine-tune and figure out the rest as we go!