I was turned on to a book recently, Steven Pressfield's "The War of Art." The gist of the book is that in all of us, lurks something we were meant to be. It could be a writer, photographer, butcher, or baker. It examines why in our lives we perhaps end up doing things that are at heart, not our true talent; and once you face up to the fact that deep inside you lurks your talent, then you must fight the challenge of resistance. Yes, our partner resistance, and his buddy procrastination. Between these two, we face our biggest challenge to pursue everyday what it is we're supposed to be doing.
Why is it we find ourselves slogging away our lives in a factory, digging ditches, flipping burgers, or any number of worthy vocations that still leave us less than satisfied?
It seems that from a very early age we are told, "You must go to school and get good grades if you ever want to get a good job." That is true to some extent. It is especially true if you want to get a job doing something you don't want to do. In most households exploring or encouraging one to find out what ones true talent is suffers.
Most of us muddle through our early years asking the age old question, "What do I want to do when I grow up?" I've been asking myself that question most of my adult life, and I would guess most of you have too.
Doing what you want to do, or more importantly doing something that utilizes your God given talent is not always an easy thing. Figuring out what that talent could be is sometimes a long, arduous process. Often we find ourselves in a career doing things we may be good at, but not what would truly satisfy our inner selves.
I've had plenty of jobs in my lifetime that I actually enjoyed, and maybe thought that it was what I was supposed to be doing. Funny thing is, none of those jobs lasted very long and I always found myself asking, "OK what now?"
I've also had the reality, and in my opinion, the blessing of being a two-time cancer survivor. You tend to re-evaluate your life when you get a diagnosis of the "Big C" in your life. It's what you do with the diagnosis that counts. I had to get cancer twice to kind of figure things out. The first time I decided it was time to stop and smell the roses so to speak. I took things slow, wanted to savor everything. Problem was I stopped being me.
The second time there was much more a sense of urgency about it. I knew that I had to get off my ass and live the rest of my life and not wait for the Grim Reaper to show up at my door saying, "Next."
This is not to say that I somehow discovered my inner child at that point, but I did decide that I was going to live until I die, instead of hanging out waiting for it to happen. During this time I completed a certification program for a career that I thought would be long and fruitful. That didn't quite work out.
It's been almost two years since I lost that gig and I've had to do a lot of soul searching once again. As I've mentioned in other posts, sometimes having it all taken away leaves you with nothing but what you think your good at, really good at, and really want to do. Question is, does anybody else think you're good at it.
Resistance plants that seed in your head everyday. Procrastination tells you it's ok to go ride your bike, or hit a tennis ball, anything but doing what is your gift.
That being said, why is that when you're sitting in the doctors office and he gives you the 'long face' and says you only have six months to live, that on the spot, you re-evaluate everything in your life and question why you didn't do this or that. When time is short, that is when you decide to travel, volunteer, write your novel, ride your bike across the country. All the things you thought you'd always have time to do but never did, come rushing into your being like water being released from a dams flood gates.
I don't want that to happen to me. I hope it doesn't happen to you.
I have a 13 year old daughter and I want to encourage her to do whatever she wants to do. To explore her talent to the fullest and never find herself looking back, asking "If only...." To not encourage her to explore her talents would make me a horrible dad. All I can do is guide her and help her make what ultimately will be her decision.
As for me, it's time to do something that has always been there, but I was never encouraged to explore. Being a shy kid it was assumed I was dumb. I never asked for help and pretended I understood something when I didn't. In the aptitude tests I took, it was apparent that I had a keen eye, and my strengths were in the arts. Trust me, I would like to be good at math, but I'm tired of trying to fit that square peg into the round hole.
Some would dismiss the arts as a relic of another time. Technology is where it's at baby. Crunching numbers, manipulating statistics, writing software programs, that's where the jobs are. Critical thinking and the ability to think outside the box now seem to be products of a by-gone era. Let's hope not.
Bob Dylan said a long time ago, "When you ain't got nothin, you got nothing to lose." That is true to a point, but I prefer what Robert McKee said in the foreword to Pressfield's book, "When inspiration touches talent, she gives birth to truth and beauty."
So yeah, maybe you have nothing to lose, but you sure have everything to gain.
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