10 Steps for Discerning and Deciding

1. Don't explore alone
Talk to your friends, someone on the same journey and your family. You are not in this journey by yourself.
2. Listen
Listen to what God is inspiring in you in your own circumstances.
3. Find a Spiritual Director
Remember that God is the one that calls us to a specific vocation and we need to discern that call.
4. Cultivate the Right Dispositions (Attitudes)
This is not acting out but an understanding of the implications of a particular way of life.
5. Experience a Retreat
We need special moments to think about our decision and help us to prepare to take the first step.
6. Seek opportunities for deepen your faith
Discovering your vocation requires putting your trust in God, but you can’t love and trust God if you don’t know Him.
7. Make contact with a Vocations Director
Contact your Vocation Director and ask to have a confidential chat.  His first responsibility is to listen to what the Holy Spirit is doing in you.
8. Approach religious communities and make an enquiry
Don’t be afraid of having a confidential chat with them. Taking a step to meet and spend some time with a community is going to be more helpful than speculating about whether they are right for you.
9. Cultivate your freedom
In order to be able to make a choice, we also need to have freedom to say ‘Yes’ to God. God appeals to our freedom, and the more we are truly free, the more we can respond to God’s call. 
10. Dare to dream and live big
Recently Pope Francis said “life is not grey, life is for betting on grand ideals and for great things!”  Many of the saints were ambitious to do something beautiful and significant with their lives.​