We’ve all read and received advice on what to do with our talents, our careers, and our lives. We search for our pathway to success. Whether asked or not, other people in our lives have shared lots of different ideas. We’ve heard: “Follow your passion, Take over the family business, Take the road less traveled, there’s less competition, or Choose what’s hot right now if you want a good job.”
For those who seek to do good, we’re told to identify what the world needs and meet that need. If our passion doesn’t lie in that direction, we’re told we can do what excites us in our free time. However, finding uncommitted time with today’s lifestyle is challenging.
A quote from Brené Brown has resurfaced recently. She says, “Don’t ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive, and go do it. Because what the world needs is more people who have come alive.”
Come Alive!
Brown wraps passion and purpose together, doesn’t she? We can ask ourselves what the world needs and then apply our skills, experience and education to that need. Yet, if it’s not something we personally are passionate about, doing so doesn’t make us “come alive”.
When we identify something that really makes us come alive, that spark of life is usually ignited by personal satisfaction and joy. We apply our time and talents to a piece of art, a stone wall, a new way to teach mathematics, a management plan for endangered water sources, or something else. Whatever it is, there will be other people in the world who appreciate what we do and how we do it. We come alive with joy and satisfaction in accomplishing something we love. We meet the needs of the world, in one small way after another.
When we do what makes us come alive, we also ignite other lives and the passions in other people. Together we begin to make a difference in what the world needs.
Many of the members of W.I.S.H. have found what makes them come alive and the world is being rewarded by their spark. Have you found what makes you come alive? Go do it.
“The world needs people who have come alive!”
