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  January 18, 2006


WhatToDo(I've had a recurrence of last fall's back injury, and sitting at the computer brings on spasms -- perhaps it is telling me something? -- so until that improves this blog's articles are likely to be short, and hopefully sweet. -- Dave)

Two great inspirations in my life recently, Dick Richards' book Is Your Genius at Work? and David Smith's book To Be Of Use, have produced a third inspiration that lies at the intersection of Dick's idea of finding your genius, your specific gift, and Dave's idea of finding meaning in your work through service to others in need. The inspiration is a simple question:

Who Needs Your Gift Now?

Perhaps this is a simpler and more elegant way of suggesting we each need to find or create the job where What We Do Well, What is Needed and What We Love Doing overlap. This, however, would seem to downplay the idea of Following Your Passion, which many self-help books recommend.

Or does it? Is it really unduly idealistic or spiritualistic to think that your gift is more than likely to have emerged, presented itself to you, or evolved with activities that you enjoy, in such a way that this gift is also something you love doing? It seems to me more likely that you wouldn't yet have discovered, even well on in your life, what your genius or passion or purpose is (because the opportunity to discover them has never arisen -- most of us live in affluent nations live remarkably narrow, sheltered lives), than that your genius and your passion lie in significantly different directions.

So rather than starting by searching for or creating that perfect job, that fulfills our passion the way the one we are doing now can never hope to do, perhaps we should instead set ourselves the simpler task of asking ourselves the question Who Needs Our Gift Now?, and then follow where the answer to that question takes us.

12:32:39 PM  trackback []  comment []


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