Where are you on your journey? For most people pain is the motivator that leads to change. Before the pain though, we usually arrive at a place in our lives where we become comfortable. We get settled in and as we do over time, we begin to notice things that we’re no longer satisfied with. This dissatisfaction builds with each reminder culminating in a crescendo. We look around and ask, how did I get here? How did this happen? This is when great things can happen.
It has happened to me multiple times as I launched out for something I wanted without being aware of all the side effects that came along with it. For example, when I first started working in the information technology years ago, I was focused on money and steady employment. When I got a job and put in some time then I began to notice other things that I enjoyed about it. I loved learning new things that I had no deep knowledge of and that was an added bonus while I was adjusting to my new lifestyle. Over time, however, the fun began to wane and the other aspects of the day to day began to build up. Doing the same thing over again and again became old and pressured me to get more education to move further up the information technology ladder. Chasing after the next in demand certification became an endless hamster wheel exercise. The operations side of information technology is like being a fireman. No matter what time of day or night, whether you were at work or not you were on the hook for systems that the business required. If one went down, it was all hands-on deck and you worked until the crisis was over. Later, redundant systems help alleviate some of that demand as well as cloud services, but the early years of those demands left their mark. I charted a path out of operations so I wouldn’t have to deal with the stress of the on-call life.
Once again though as time progressed, the redundancy of the work I was doing ate away at me. I realized I wasn’t doing all I could be doing in life. It was that simple. I wasn’t designed to sit in a cubicle in front of a screen all day. That’s not who I am. The coping mechanisms that I used to deal with numbing my pain of my past and present and not being myself finally created enough pain to motivate me to do something about it. It took a long time, but here we are. Living someone else’s life isn’t nearly as rewarding and fulfilling as creating my life each day.
We were all made in the image of our Creator. We are all creators. We can find fulfillment creating from the place we were designed to create from but pulling a lever in someone else’s system is not truly rewarding for humans. We were designed to be free, individuals that collaborate and create. That’s why truly successful individuals that we applaud in society are good at what they do. They create things they are passionate about and their vision fuels creative energy in others to build and achieve great things together.
Don’t know what you’re good at? Think back to when you were a child. What did you enjoy the most? I remember clearly leading the neighborhood children in lots of activities and the fondest memory I have was organizing races and handing out awards for the participants. Years later I understood I enjoy helping people become who they were designed to be. Helping them experience their best life. That brings me great joy and it’s a new experience each time that brings unique rewards. So that’s the question. Where are you on your journey? Are you doing what you were put here for? If you don’t know what that is, what did you do when you were little that brought you joy? Your purpose is tucked away in that joy that you experienced. It might take a little digging to find it, but it will be worth it. I promise.
