What would you attempt to do to find your life\u2019s purpose? <\/p>\n
It\u2019s a question lawyer-turned jewelry maker Jill Donovan has been asking for most of her life. At nine years old, Donovan made a commitment to pursue a new hobby every year, and jewelry designing was the latest pastime on her list seven years ago. That hobby became her successful jewelry company Rustic Cuff, which she launched out of the tiny guest bedroom in her Oklahoma home back in 2011. Since then, Rustic Cuff has become something of a phenomenon.<\/p>\n
Turn on the TV and you might see people like Gayle King sporting her cuffs on the morning news. Join a Facebook group of 44,000 members, all of whom share an obsession with Donovan\u2019s designs and life philosophy, and you\u2019ll begin to understand why her bangles have such a cult following. The chunky beads, leather prints, and embroidered inspirational quotes aren\u2019t the only thing drawing fans to Donovan\u2019s jewelry line, it\u2019s her story, and the message of hope she inspires, that\u2019s really catching on.<\/p>\n
The mother of two never intended for her small hobby to become her life\u2019s passion. In fact, she\u2019d made the commitment to try a new hobby every year as a child because her gymnastics coach made it clear to her that she didn\u2019t have an Olympic-level future in the sport like she\u2019d dreamed.<\/p>\n
\u201cI listened [to my coach], and I said, \u2018Well, if I can’t devote my life to gymnastics then I\u2019m going to try a new hobby every year until I find my passion, my purpose,\u2019\u201d Donovan tells Guideposts.org.<\/p>\n
At 10, she spent a year learning Russian. She spent another year playing the harmonica. Ice skating, painting lessons, and a variety of other hobbies soon followed.<\/p>\n
At the same time, Donovan was pursuing her legal career. She thought defending the law might be her calling, but soon fell out of love with the courtroom. She tried teaching law at the University of Tulsa, but even that held little interest. She became a mom to daughters Ireland and August and though they kept her busy, Donovan still felt something might be missing from her life.<\/p>\n
\u201cI just kept thinking that there’s got to be something that I can go to bed on a Sunday night and wake up on a Monday morning and be excited about,\u201d Donovan explains.<\/p>\n
One year, Donovan, who watched Oprah Winfrey\u2019s talk show religiously when it was on the air, made it her hobby to try and get to a taping of the show. After plenty of fruitless attempts to score tickets to the show, she saw a call-out for guests to volunteer for an \u201cetiquette-themed\u201d episode. The producers were looking for re-gifters, and Donovan thought she fit the bill.<\/p>\n
\u201cI had grown up with parents who were big-time re-gifters, meaning, instead of going to the store to buy a birthday gift for your friend, you’d go to your mom’s closet, to all the gifts she had received over the course or her life, and you would have to pick from that closet,\u201d Donovan says.<\/p>\n
Those experiences made for some funny stories \u2013 like the time she regifted a birthday present to her mother-in-law just one year after the mother-in-law had given the gift to her \u2013 that nabbed her a spot on the show. She thought it might be her big break, getting to meet Oprah and possibly try her hand at being on TV since broadcasting seemed to fit with her outgoing personality and love of talking to people.<\/p>\n
Instead, Donovan was flown out to a taping in Chicago where she received some brutal criticism from the etiquette experts on the show. They called her regifting hobby \u201crude,\u201d \u201ctacky,\u201d and suggested she donate her entire linen closet full of gifts to Goodwill.<\/p>\n
\u201cYour world just goes into slow motion when you’re being humiliated, and that is how it felt at that moment,\u201d Donovan recalls. \u201cI know relative to what other people are going through in life it was minimal, but at that moment in my life it felt like the lowest valley that I had been through.\u201d<\/p>\n
The episode aired three times that year to an audience of millions.<\/p>\n
\u201cEvery time I’ve watched it, it was worse than what I had remembered,\u201d Donovan says. \u201cI remember going home and emptying my whole re-gifting closet and I said, \u2018If this is what doing hobbies or pursuing my purpose, if this is where it got me then I don’t ever want to do another hobby again. And I would be okay never [finding] my purpose.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
It took Donovan five years to make peace with the embarrassing ordeal.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was lying in bed and I just thought, \u2018I’m going to let it go,\u2019\u201d she says. \u201cAnd not only that but I’m going to start doing something again to awaken my soul.\u201d<\/p>\n
She had worked for American Airlines while putting herself through law school and had made a habit of buying cuffs in every country she visited as a memento of her travels. She thought crafting jewelry that she could gift to friends and family might be a fun way to tap back into her creative side. She taught herself to engrave quotes and names on the bracelets and over the course of a year, began restocking the shelves of her linen closet.<\/p>\n
One day, she felt a calling to gift her creations to people she didn\u2019t know.<\/p>\n
\u201cI didn\u2019t really want to do that,\u201d Donovan admits. \u201cIt’s okay to give them to friends and family but when you walk up to a stranger and just go, \u2018Here, I’d like to give you a bracelet I made,\u2019 that’s awkward.\u201d<\/p>\n
Still, she went into her closet, got a handful of cuffs, and decided to wear them in case she felt compelled to give one away. A crowded grocery store served as her first opportunity.<\/p>\n
\u201cI saw this girl, one of the cashiers, and that was the line I was supposed to be in,\u201d Donovan recalls. \u201cBy the time I got to the front, I thought surely it will be an empty line. There were five people behind me and I thought, \u2018Oh this is going to be painful, but I know I have to do it.\u2019 I took off a bracelet and I said, \u2018I know this is going to be awkward, but I just feel like I’m supposed to give this to you.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
The cashier immediately started crying after receiving the bracelet. \u201cTears would not stop flowing and I said, \u2018Are you okay?\u2019 She said, \u2018You’d have no way of knowing this, but yesterday I was diagnosed with breast cancer. When I was in the doctor\u2019s office I asked God to give me a sign of hope that everything’s going to be okay.\u2019 And I looked down and I had given her this pink one [the color of breast cancer awareness and support]. Which was bizarre because I had no idea. And she said, \u2018Thank you for being that sign of hope.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
The experience cemented Donovan\u2019s decision to keep creating the cuffs.<\/p>\n
Her company slowly grew to 160 employees over the next three years, with showrooms across the country and Donovan advertised her jewelry by writing to people she admired and gifting them a cuff with an inspirational message. She sent a bracelet to Gail King on a whim and a while later, saw her wearing the cuff on TV.<\/p>\n
Not long after, Donovan got a letter in the mail. It was a copy of the March issue of O Magazine<\/em> with a note from the creative director of the publication.<\/p>\n \u201cIt said, \u2018Congratulations Jill. Rustic Cuff was chosen to be on the wrist of Oprah for her March issue,\u2019\u201d Donovan says. \u201cIt was the cuff that I had gifted to Gayle King that Oprah was now wearing. Whether or not Gayle re-gifted it to her, I don’t know exactly, but that was the cuff and that was the full circle moment for me.\u201d<\/p>\n Now, Donovan\u2019s Rustic Cuff has something called a regifting club.<\/p>\n \u201cEvery month, people get two cuffs with an inspirational quote on it like, \u2018One day at a time,\u2019 or \u2018Dream big dreams,\u2019\u201d she says. \u201cThey keep one and then the other one I ask them to carry it around their purse for that month and when they find the right person, to re-gift it to that person.\u201d<\/p>\n The practice inspired her new book, The Kindness Effect<\/em>, where Donovan recounts her journey to starting over and finding her life\u2019s passion and encourages others to do the same. It\u2019s why she asked her Facebook followers the question: \u201cWhat would you attempt to do if you knew you could not fail?\u201d<\/p>\n It\u2019s why she replied to the thousands of responses she got with encouraging words of wisdom, gifts of bracelets, and even ballroom dancing lessons for a little girl who dreamed of dancing competitively.<\/p>\n It\u2019s all part of Donovan\u2019s philosophy of reinvention. She still attempts a new hobby every year though she says she\u2019s finally found her purpose and she hopes others might be encouraged to step out of their comfort zones after hearing her story.<\/p>\n \u201cFor me, none of it is wasted,\u201d Donovan says of her life’s experiences. \u201cAll these tools have helped me finally get to this chapter, this chapter of purpose.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" What would you attempt to do to find your life\u2019s purpose? It\u2019s a question lawyer-turned jewelry maker Jill Donovan has been asking for most of her life. At nine years old, Donovan made a commitment to pursue a new hobby every year, and jewelry designing was the latest pastime on her list seven years ago. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":106,"featured_media":29558,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"ep_exclude_from_search":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[341],"tags":[38,21,45],"ppma_author":[470],"class_list":["post-21816","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-living-longer-living-better","tag-happiness","tag-kindness","tag-work-life-balance"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n