What constitutes passion? For which do we live: that which brings fire to our breast or bread to our table? Can these be one and the same? How does one fit family, socialization, vacation; in short all of the modern constructs into the temporal limitations of a single life? And what if these two coincide? Does this facilitate or exacerbate the issues described above.
Time is of a limited quantity for each one of us, hence lending preciousness to each of the microseconds in which we live and breathe and move, and yet there is at times a desperation that tugs at the heart, inquiring as to whether we have well used the time with which we have been endowed. For me, at times there seems to exist a hard polemic between what we want to and what we believe we should do with these lives of which we are the undeserving and at times unaware beneficiaries. Certainly once said life has been ordained we have the right to live it, however the question comes down to how we live it. How shall we spend the time we have been given. And this lies at the heart of what catapults my mind to a million possibilities on a daily basis.
Work is a necessary part of our daily lives. Modern America would seem to have removed a certain level of responsibility from the worker, and on the contrary imputed a great deal of responsibility on the employer, such that the work itself takes on less focus than the associated benefits, salary, and time off of the employment in question. I would venture that not long ago, these questions would never have entered the minds of those setting off to work. Their concerns lie in securing employment and in doing everything necessary to maintain it, in order to in turn maintain their families. I may even go so far as to suggest that they sought more immediately what it was they truly enjoyed, or phrased differently, followed their respective passions.
Now it would at times seem that we are rather out for all that we can get as far as the fringe benefits and options are concerned, and worry little for what lies at the heart of the labor we undertake in exchange. Much to my own peril, I do at times fear, for something in the heart of me will not rest in these conditions. Be it that I choose a field completely unrelated to the course of study I chose, or even a type of employment that for some particular reason society would consider me to be above, I will give it my best all, until such time as I see that it does not give back to me in the same measure.
In the perception of a thirty-something, oft-employed and seldom fulfilled professional, employee, and coach, I believe that our work must always return to us at least as much as we put into it. Perhaps ironically, this has little to do with the associated pay involved. As long as there is enough to support the life that we live, this particular requirement has been fulfilled and should stop here. I can name off a dozen jobs I have performed for a lot less than the one I have now, where I have had triple the sense of fulfillment.
Is it enough to love your job? Perhaps, but does it also challenge you? Thrust you forward to develop some other part of you that up to this point in your life you have not known? These are the requirements I have for the jobs that I undertake, and as such, perhaps it is not surprising that I have found few that have answered in all that I have asked of them.
Even still, there is the utilitarian aspect of the work that we do. What purpose does it serve? To bring bread to the table and financially support and enable the lives that we lead. Just about any job position can fill this order....especially in the age of the minimum wage. But this does not get to the heart of what it means to discover passion and make it a part of our every day lives. Oh how I wish that I could find such a place to discharge my skills and abilities in a way that would reward the world with my own particular brand of genius.
Genius though, innate or learned? This is an intriguing question to be explored in more detail. Are we all geniuses, inherently capable of bestowing some new knowledge or facilitating some new discovery for the world? One might be so audacious as to say yes, and in so stating clarify that a majority of the world does not exercise their gifts and talents for fear of the very world in which they have been born and live. Those who truly exhibit the genius bestowed upon them are those uninhibited by the fear of judgment by those around them, or what might happen, or what might not happen, or what might have been.
Where do I fall? Somewhere in the mix. From the time of my childhood, I have never quite known my place in the world; and then at some point I came to the startling realization that I am entitled to no place, rather I must make my own place and move forward from there. I think I still find myself limited by this understanding, afraid of what I may or may not achieve if I take said action. Of the few certainties I can put forth, are a passion for language and the human person. A deep understanding of others and a desire to see them succeed. Perhaps these are what I need to fixate on in order to discover the place where my gifts and talents meets the world's needs. The mythical sweet spot, where man finds fulfillment and the world and those around him reap the benefits of a man truly and fully living out his purpose in life.
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