This week we are doing a three part series called, “A Cover Up, a Party and a Calling.” Part 1 can be found here. We take different approaches to life, and each of these affects our ability to pursue our calling.
The second approach is what I call the Party. This approach also hinders us from pursuing our calling. We see life as solely for our own enjoyment and personal pursuits. We pursue money, power, pleasure, and anything else that gratifies us. The main thought process is, “What’s in it for me?” We want every transaction and every event to be for our benefit. Loosely translated, we want life to be a party.
We’ve heard people say, “I’m just trying to get ahead in life.” This person is in pursuit of a bigger lifestyle. They’re looking to make more money. We’ve also heard people talk about increasing their sphere of influence. This sounds pretty positive, but it can also be a grab for more power. We’ve also heard people talk about wanting to just take it easy in retirement. “I want to travel in my retirement years,” is a common thought.
A lot of what we hear from people is about what they want for themselves. When people talk about what they want for others’ benefit, we often think they’re a bit weird. Living for our own benefit seems, well, normal. So now we’re saying this is bad?
The Subtle Truth
The subtle truth is that none of these things are bad in themselves. There’s nothing wrong with making more money. Making more money doesn’t make us greedy. Some of the most generous people are very rich. There’s nothing wrong with wanting more influence. There’s nothing wrong with traveling or taking some R&R to recharge.
In fact, these things are often good things, so what’s the problem?
The Problem
The problem is that if pretty much most of our life is spent focused on gratifying ourselves, we live a terribly shallow life. When we die, we leave very little behind other than a bunch of stuff. Living a narcissistic life focused mainly on what we get out of life leaves little room for pursuits of greater meaning.
At Simply Great Lives, we define a calling as the intersection of our greatest strengths, our deepest passions, in a way that makes the biggest, meaningful impact. If we are focused solely on ourselves, we’ll be missing the ‘meaningful impact’ part of our calling. Instead, we’ll just have a nice career or a fun hobby.
We’ll be missing out, but worse, the world will be missing out. I believe that in each of us is an amazing special gift that we are meant to give the world. If we don’t give this gift, the world will be diminished. Imagine Mother Teresa saying, “To heck with orphans. I’m going to the beach.”
In My Life
For me, I go through cycles of just wanting gratification to the exclusion of everything else. I want to just veg out watching shows on Netflix. I want to play games all day long. And I want to eat fatty sugary foods. Sometimes I let the cycle run its course so I can get back to my calling fully motivated.
Sometimes I need to stop the cycle because it’s overtaking my life. When this happens, I need other people to help by pushing me back on track. I am grateful for my friends, mentors, and coaches.
What about you? What are you most proud of?
