I’ve been reading several books that hit along the theme of finding your interests and building a professional life around those. Most tend to have you look back at your childhood and young adult life, remembering the things that gave you the sweetest taste of life when you did them.
Over at Betterer, Jasmine does just this:
Remember when you were 13, 14 years old, and made little projects for yourself that really mattered? Learning a musical instrument, swimming competitively (Hi, Crystal!), painting banners for your annual Girl Guides campfire, learning web design … the list goes on, and my question is: Remember when all that mattered was doing your best? When your friends who were in the same courses or classes as you were supportive and real friends, not competitors?
As we grow older we’ve learnt to focus more on survival, less on self-cultivation. Surviving the next day at work, another promotion given to someone else, a friend or acquaintance getting more popular and self-confident; our egos shrink from perceiving that others are doing better, so we inflate that ego to increase self-worth for a mere moment, then divert our energies towards talking about others, criticising them internally so we can focus less on making our lives work just that little bit smoother, and perhaps better.
She goes on to write about her theme for 2010 being humility, which I think is a great theme for life in general. Lord knows I’ve lived it lately, purposefully or not.
As a parting gift, here are two books that I’d recommend if you are interested in reading/learning more about tapping into that sweet spot (affiliate links):
- Cure for the Common Life by Max Lucado
- Linchpin: Are You Indispensable? by Seth Godin
The first approaches the subject matter from a Christian perspective. I’m not crazy about some of the Bible translations used (especially The Message Bible), but the verses are spot-on in backing up the message.
The second is one of Godin’s best books. I’m in the middle of it right now, and I recommend it highly.
