The exploration of finding our calling — that is, what are we really good at — is something that can take an entire lifetime. Chances are the conditions by which we make such an evaluation will change as you go along. At age almost 63, I continue to examine and define.
Does it All Matter?
Socrates allegedly said "The unexamined life is not worth living."
This whole "life purpose" topic has long interested me, as has the broader study of the human experience. Hence, the examination of what we're meaningfully good at is of great interest to me.
Chances are, that there are actually many things that we are really good at and enjoy doing. In my last post I talked about certain types of writing that I consider myself pretty good at. They are not necessarily what makes writing my Calling; for that matter I'm not even sure that writing is my calling.
But maybe it's one of them.
One of the challenges most people encounter when identifying their true calling in life is the fact that we tend to stay on the surface when we examine things. What I mean by that, is that we draw on our education, or on the jobs we've held, rather than on what our heart is telling us.
For example, I have previously written about how one of the things I've always felt like I was really good at is finding things. Of course, "finding things" isn't really a job, it's a thing; an interest; something you're good at.
I have a "very fine" education in Finance and I'm considered "good with numbers" but I actually have very little interest in working in finance, and I never really did. The education simply followed a childhood/youth tendency towards "being good with numbers" and in no way considered what I enjoyed doing, in life.
Another thing I'm generally pretty good at is pulling together highly disparate information, things and people and turning them into a framework that helps somebody else realize and/or complete a task they had long been hoping to complete. I create and provide frameworks, but I don't actually make or use anything, that's for others to do.
For example, I might be the one who makes sure that everybody has a really awesome time at a party, I simply provide the infrastructure but I have no particular interest in the party itself or the people at the party. My reward and recognition is typically no more than seeing that all these people are happy. In a sense, my "work" happens almost entirely in the shadows.
Hence my previous allusion to my desire to be the groundskeeper at a Zen-like retreat center. People having a potentially life-changing end enjoyable experience but they may not be entirely sure why. And that's OK.
Of course, this sort of self-enquiry is not important to many people. They live by the philosophy "just pick something you can earn money from and get on with life."
Which, I guess, is an OK philosophy if you can authentically say that your life is good and you're happy in it. However, I'll be less sympathetic if you're going to sit around and eternally complain about how you hate your work and your life!
Thanks for stopping by, and have a great Friday!
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Created at 2023-07-14 00:19 PDT
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