In this informal, unscripted video, author‑coach Mary Schiller invites viewers to contemplate a profound question that came to her as she was falling asleep: “What do you really want to be doing?” She explains that the question goes beyond daily preferences and taps into the callings of the heart and the Universal Mind, a concept drawn from Sydney Banks. Schiller argues that true fulfillment arises when we align our actions with these inner callings, rather than drifting through jobs or habits that feel disconnected from our deeper purpose. She illustrates this with the story of a potter who works in a low‑value job solely for money, contrasting it with performers who live their calling. To make the insight actionable, she issues a 24‑hour challenge: participants should track, in real time, how much of their day is spent on activities that feel like a genuine calling versus those that do not, and record the results. She emphasizes that the exercise is not meant to cause distress but to raise awareness of the freedom to choose activities that resonate with one’s inner inspiration. Finally, she invites feedback via email or video comments.
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Hello, this is Mary Schiller, author and coach, also calling myself Mary in Paris these days since I just moved here. And I am recording this video for you this morning really quick at the end of my block here, and there's a little bit of noise in the background, so I apologize in advance for that. But it was really important for me to get up this morning and record this message for you to include in this email, if you're receiving this email, or if you're watching this on YouTube, there's a really crucial question that I'm going to ask you. So as I was falling asleep last night, which often happens, I had kind of a profound experience, and that was the question came to my mind: what do you really want to be doing? What do you really want to be doing? And the reason why I feel this question is so profound is because it's not just about what do I want to be doing with my time all day, how do I want to be spending my time. To me, it's so much bigger than that. To me, it's about listening to the callings of our heart and realizing that when we are answering the callings of our heart. We're also listening to mind, and we're living from mind, Universal Mind, as Sydney Banks described it. And so those things that we think of that we really want to be doing are not frivolous. They are not, "Oh well, if only someday I could..." Those are things that are calling to us because they are a way for us to connect with more fully this universal intelligence that is driving us, that is allowing us to even be here. They're also a way for us to express universal mind to the world around us. You know, they are the vehicle by which we experience our true selves. So asking ourselves the question, what do I really want to be doing, isn't just, oh, you know, today I'd like to get my nails done, or today I'd like to, you know, whatever it might be. It's really more about what is calling to me to do and how can I connect to that in a way that is really, really powerful. So I'm gonna just step away from this corner because there's a car here. Hold on one second. Kind of go over here and see if I can continue. So it's really crucial to me that we not only ask ourselves this question, what do I really want to be doing, but that we stop long enough to answer it. You know, I've known so many people, including myself, who are doing things all day long very unconsciously. You know, they are going to a job that they don't like just because it's something that they've done for a long time, or they're, you know, they're listening to some thinking that's really old and stale that tells them that they have to keep doing a certain habit that just doesn't serve them anymore, instead of stopping and asking, wait a minute, what am I doing? You know, what do I really want to be doing? I'll give you an example. Again, I'm going to try to get away from this car. Hold on. Stepping over here. So one example that I can think of is a woman that I used to work with was an avid potter. She loved making pottery. And yet she was spending her days in a job that had really no, uh, societal value whatsoever. And she knew that. She told me that. She said, I'm only here for the money. I'm only here for the stability. I'm only here for the benefits. Well, that is not what we are designed to be doing. We, in my opinion, are not designed to be having two separate lives— a work life and a real life, or a work life and a personal life. You know, to me, there should be no such thing as work. There should be listening to what's calling to us to do and expressing that and exchanging value for that. And in fact, there are many, many people in the world who are doing that. A big example you can think of immediately is people who do things like perform. You know, they're clearly acting from a calling within them that's telling them that they have a desire to sing or act or dance or whatever it is, and that's how they are connecting with their higher self, with mind, and that's how we are experiencing that through them. So I really want you to consider this question: what do you really want to be doing. And I'd also like to issue a challenge for you for the next 24 hours. I'd like you to notice how often you're doing things you do want to be doing and how often you're doing things you don't want to be doing. And I want you to write this down. Write down how much of your time is spent doing things that feel like they are calling to you to do versus times when you're doing things that seem to have no relevance to what's really inside you and what's really calling to you. And this exercise isn't designed to make you feel upset or depressed or anything. It's simply to make you more conscious of the fact that you absolutely have the option to listen to and respond to what is calling to you to do. There is no reason in the world that you can't spend your time doing what you enjoy, and I believe that's our responsibility almost as human beings, is to respond to that inspiration and allow it to come into being for as long as it wants to be out in the world. And then if new inspiration strikes, we're allowed to listen to that and respond to that and go with that. So I hope that this video has been helpful to you. It's kind of spur of the moment and not rehearsed, but I really want you to take a day and listen to the callings of your heart. See what they are telling you to do and see how often you're really paying attention to them and responding to them. All right, so If you would like to let me know how this works out for you, I'd love to hear. You can reply to this email if you're watching this in an email. You can post a comment if you're watching this on video. You can email me directly, mary@marieschiller.com. I would love to hear from you. Thanks so much for listening. Bye now.
