Kahlil Gibran said “Work is love made visible. And if you cannot work with love but only with distaste, it is better that you should leave your work and sit at the gate of the temple and take alms of those who work with joy.”
I have been fortunate that I have enjoyed most of my life as an employee or independent contractor, doing work that I found stimulating and interesting. I have always found myself in a position where I was either able to learn more, or in a position to teach others and see them grow.
Curiosity and being eager to learn also helped me a lot.
Of course, I have never been able to do everything I wanted – because there is so much that I want to do. For that I discovered a great solution years ago. I have a project plan. Whenever I find something interesting that I want to explore, it goes onto the project plan. When I get a good idea for a product that I want to create in the future, it goes onto the project plan.
The consequence is that I know no idea will be forgotten or get lost in the busyness of me working on several projects at a time. The project plan also helps me focus on what needs to be done. For example, when I write a book, I know fairly soon into the process whether the book will become an audio book or a video course. I then add lines to the project plan to ensure I deal with all the details – creative and technical – that are required for bringing the project to fruition. There is such a feeling of satisfaction in striking through a task on my plan when it is done.
Now that I no longer am an employee or a contractor, I can focus 100% on my spiritual work. I could for the last three decades have complained about not being able to do so, or I could have taken the leap when I knew the timing was not right yet.
What held me back was that I realised years ago that my formal work life is such a rich source of growth for me spiritually as well as intellectually. So, I cannot really say I was held back – I had the insight and I used every minute of it.
Not so long ago four clients in four different countries asked me over a period of one week what their purpose in life was. The answer that was given to all four of them in their readings was “stop looking for your purpose outside of you. Stop paying money to get someone to help you find an external purpose. Look at what you do that makes you feel happy and good about yourself. Then do more of that. That is your purpose in this life. If you can do that, you will help other people as well”.
I cannot for the life of me understand that any adult would want to sleep late every day and then complain that they “cannot find a job” when there is so much to do around them.
What is your purpose in life?
Namaste.
