Embrace Your Calling: A 9-Step Guide to Shift from Professional Career to Spiritual Guide

The number one obstacle for professionals acting on a spiritual calling-based business is fear.

Your calling is strong. You know in your heart of hearts that coaching, mentoring, or guiding others spiritually (or what our culture has deemed as “woo-woo”) is what you MUST do. But, showing this side of yourself is terrifying.

You’re afraid that colleagues will be skeptical, even laugh, and question your credibility.

Worse, you fear you’ll lose the standing you spent a lifetime building in your professional career.

It’s a fear of judgment and I totally get it. I’ve been in those shoes and have a few things to share that I know will help you.

1. Recognize Your Calling Comes Because of Readiness

Professionals often feel insecure about publicly stepping onto their spiritual path. You’re shifting from logic to feelings, which feels less concrete and more wishy-washy. But it’s actually a balancing of the feminine/masculine and right brain/left brain.

It’s a normal change when you’re conscious and aware and on a path of personal growth. And if you’re feeling that urge to step into your calling, it means you’ve reached your readiness point.

Many professionals successfully transition to a spiritual coaching or mentoring business. And they don’t experience the feared fallout. Instead, they often find unconditional love, acceptance, and respect for their courage.

You might even find out that you have colleagues with similar desires.

At the early stages of your calling, it’s important to:

• Acknowledge your desire for change.

• Reflect on your professional journey as a stepping stone for something bigger.

• Ask yourself if the fear is worth turning away from all those who need you in this new role.

2. Use Your Professional Background

Your past experiences are invaluable. And chances are, they’re an intentional part of what has led you to this point. 

I’ve worked with attorneys, CEOs, and medical doctors. I even worked with a Trauma and Burn Surgeon who was following her spiritual calling. 

They all struggled to let go of the fear of exposing an aspect of their true self that their career had sometimes shadowed.

Viewing this aspect of self as something that needs to be hidden is a mistake.

This aspect of your true self is front and center right now because it’s grown and evolved. But it has always been there. Your skills, knowledge, and wisdom have combined to bring you to a point where you’re ready to acknowledge and act on your calling.

Try to see your professional background as a needed perspective you had to gain or a foundation you had to build. This can help you see your shift into more spiritual, energetic, and ‘woo-woo’ work as a natural progression, a path.

It’s a progression of your purpose.

There’s a lot you’ve gained from your career that makes it possible to follow your calling now.

Here are a few ways to leverage your professional background:

1. Note your transferable skills. Integrate them into a spiritual guidance approach.

2. Reflect on your career achievements. Notice how your past is connected to your present.

3. Create a story that bridges your past to your present and start sharing the story.

3. Reframe Career Change as an Evolution

"There is nothing permanent except change." - Heraclitus

I swear that’s my daily mantra.  Sometimes, it’s a moment-to-moment mantra. Nothing will ever stay the same, it’s impossible.  Things change, and people evolve. 

It's a gift to get the chance to express a more conscious, meaningful aspect of yourself and your calling.

The alternative is living without experiencing the highest expression of who you are.

No, thank you.  I chose to step into my calling, even though it’s scary.

4. Address Fears and Doubts

Identify and overcome your fears. 

You’ve been gifted with a powerful machine (your brain). However, it can be a little excessive with ‘protection mode’ making it unhelpful at times. 

It usually happens when you feel stuck, unable to take the next step, or are struggling to talk about the spiritual stuff openly.

Learn how to manage your mind when this happens. Understand how it works, so you can leverage it rather than be unconsciously ruled by it.

If you don’t have a system for moving fears and doubts out of the way, you won’t be able to make the impact you’re here to make.

Truth is, we all struggle with fear, doubt, and worry. Especially things like:

• Imposter syndrome

• Fear of failure or judgment

• Loss of credibility

Acknowledge and address these fears. Learn the skills of mind management, so you can grow your new business more quickly.

Here are a few ways you can handle fears when they pop up:

• Give your mind some truths that contradict the fear.

• Call on a memory that makes you really happy.

• Hold an image of helping humanity with your gifts and feel the gratitude you receive.

5. Create Daily Practices that Support Your Calling

You found success in your career by gaining skills and practicing. The same will be true for your calling.

And while the new skills and practice you take on may be more internal, they are needed just the same. The more you practice, the more confident you become. The more confident you are, the more effectively you can show up for the people who need you.

Believe in your potential.

Remember, your intention, attention, and expectations shape reality.

Set aside time every day to:

• Embody your new role with visualization and movement.

• Write about all the new clients coming your way.

• Reflect and process any emotions that make you feel stuck or overwhelmed.

6. Tap Into Your Full Potential

Developing self-awareness is crucial. The first step to any great change is becoming aware. You must be aware of your surroundings, starting point, and needs. Only then can you begin to consciously create.

If you’re following a spiritual calling and with it, building a business, your business is a conscious creation. It deserves your full potential and abilities.

“Everybody has a creative potential and from the moment you can express this creative potential, you can start changing the world.” - Paulo Coelho

These 4 steps can help you tap into what you’re capable of:

• Identify what’s in the way of you becoming more visible in your new spiritual calling.

• Create a plan for addressing the obstacles (and skepticism, if any).

• Cultivate your intuition and ‘knowing’ regularly with daily practices.

• Surround yourself with people who support your new role.

Think of this as alchemy. 

Instead of turning lead into gold, you’re transforming professional expertise into spiritual wisdom. The result is abundance for all.

But just in case, here’s some statistics. According to the Pew Research Center:

81% say there is something spiritual beyond the natural world, even if we cannot see it.

74% say there are some things science cannot possibly explain.

45% say they have had a sudden feeling of connection with something from beyond this world.

Clearly, there is a growing awareness and need for spiritual coaching, mentoring, and guidance.

It’s time!

7. Confidently Build Your New Identity

Many have walked this path before. Others have followed a calling and built a business around coaching, mentoring, or spiritual guidance. You’re not the first, and you won’t be the last. 

History shows a long-standing presence of mystics in society. 

And their role was to remind us of who we are. They help us to maintain our connection to something bigger.

People crave meaning. They seek life and spiritual coaching, energy readings, or wellness practices that connect them to a higher self. This need is real.

Realize the impact that your new identity can have in comparison to your profession. They are both incredibly valuable and fulfill a need. One goes wide, while the other goes deep. 

Again, it’s simply an evolution. Embrace it.

Build your new identity as the foundation of your business:

• Identify your values and voice.

• Create a story that bridges your past with the present.

• Clarify your new audience.

• Write your message, mission, and meaningful outcomes.

• Develop your offer.

• Start talking about it.

Establish credibility in your new field. Start with the story that bridges your past to your present.

Be the voice for those who are not yet at the stage of readiness that you are. Trust that the people who resonate with you will find you, follow you, and work with you.

Personal values help you identify your voice in your new spiritual role. A simple exercise of writing down a list of words that represent your values can get you started.

For example:

Mindfulness

Love

Understanding

Acceptance

Joy

Compassion

If you’d like a more in-depth exercise to identify your voice through your core values, this exercise will help you.

8. Choose a Supportive Community

Nurture relationships with former colleagues. I’ve had many conversations with professionals who shifted to spiritual work. They tell me they were pleasantly surprised when they told everyone. 

People they never thought would be interested in their work were in full support. Colleagues were even interested in working with them.

Imagine a vertical scale. It shows your career as the foundation for the evolution of YOU. (Even though it seems completely different and non-relevant, it’s relevant to you as a person who needed the foundation to grow from.)

With each experience of growth, you rise on the scale. From this perspective, you can see how your past career is connected and even enhances your standing.

Now you can collaborate with others in spiritual or energetic work. The fields are growing and we need more people to confidently step forward.

Integrate support systems designed for spiritually minded coaches, mentors, and guides.

Building a business will require work and listening to your inner guidance. Choose support that addresses more than just your business.  It should also help you as a whole person.

Look for mind management tools, daily practices, and marketing guidance.

Pick a community where you can go at your own pace. Avoid feeling pressured or intimidated by tech, aggressive tactics, or information overload.

You need a more grounded, methodical approach to the whole being that you are.

9. Balance Mind Management, Manifesting, and Marketing

Mind management, manifesting (intention, attention, and expectation), and marketing are key.

By providing tools for mind management, helping you understand the power of intention, attention, and expectation, and showing you how to take empowered marketing action, your whole being is brought into your business. 

Your whole being is honored, nurtured, and given wings. 

This is a Holistic Success Model™ for business coaching that is rapidly taking hold.

Integrate all 3 for a deeper level of long-term success, avoiding a rollercoaster of uncertainties that trends or tactics can bring.

Your calling may feel fragile at first. But, with the right support, you can make your leap into meaningful work that helps humanity.  Answer your calling, you're needed.

I use the Holistic Success Model™ for business coaching in the Happy & Successful Business Mastermind.  If you'd like to know more, checkout the info sheet.

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Michelle Sera

Hi, I'm Michelle Sera, head coach and founder of  ElevatedMind®.

I'm also a best-selling author, Certified Happiness Coach, Marketing Mentor, Freedom Formula Facilitator, 7-Figure Copywriter, (human, dog, and cat) mama, farmer, gardener, and Dragon Boat racer.