Day 19: Challenge Accepted
Aspire to develop your highest potential
What is life all about? Is it about having a new car, every toy you can buy, bunch of fake friends? Or is it about an interesting lifestyle, spending time with amazing people, developing great stories? I choose life.
I spent an indecent amount of time working in jobs I thought I liked, but later discovered that were killing me, my creativity and my life mojo. Jobs, that payed the bills, but I payed a huge debt to my karma for not listening my inner voice, my heart, my sixth sense.
It probably doesn’t come as a surprise that I believe everything has it’s own timing, place and meaning. So I’m sure that all those jobs were meant to teach me something, whether it be patience, some professional skills I tried to avoid, or just being there to heal my past wounds until I get back on my feet and out there. So I am grateful even for those times I didn’t like my jobs, but I learned some valuable lessons from them.
Recent years I was struggling with my own search for the meaning. I was doing some freelance gigs, had some great projects and did a lot of work for various brands. No bad at all, really. But I wasn’t happy. Then I turned to my inner senses and asked myself, what do I really want? What are my values, what kind of life do I want? What are the things that move me, inspire me, connect me with my true self? Pretty hard questions for someone who developed his career in a corporate environment. But worth examining and taking time to find good, honest answers.
“An unexamined life is not worth living” — Plato
Most of my passion that inspires me is directed to things that do something good in the world. I mean, truly good, not just profits for companies. Not that profits are bad on their own. But they have to mean for something, they have to be invested in something greater than themselves. I like projects that help people develop their potentials, I like when they help people break trough their barriers, projects that educate and connect amazing people together.
My own work, to be excellent and really me, to get me to feel useful, must also have a potential for personal development. The potential that gets me out of my comfort zone, that excites me, is not boring, is dynamic and it’s real. I mean, dedicated to real people, real talents, skills and human achievements.
One important thing that comes from psychology and is kind of my compass, is the theory of Flow, by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi.
Basic premise in the theory flow is that you do your best work when your high skill level matches high challenge your working on. Imagine Michael Jordan hitting that basket in the last second. Perfect flow.
The state of flow is for me something that I need to have the potential to be in when I work on projects. Of course, you can’t be always in the flow. But sometimes, when everything connects, when there’s a big challenge ahead of you and you know you can do it, and when you do it, wow, there is that flow. You feel empowered, you feel like an Übermensch, as Nietzsche called it. You feel you conquered the world. That feeling is what I am looking for.
And maybe I found that opportunity again. I’ve just joined a team of amazing people, working on a startup that connects and helps specific entrepreneurs. I sense a great challenge ahead, but hey, I’ve got the skills, so I might as well enjoy the ride and work my magic.
p.s. I will definitely write about this project again. Soon. Till then:
“So never refuse an invitation, never resist the unfamiliar, never fail to be polite and never outstay the welcome. Just keep your mind open and suck in the experience. And if it hurts, you know what? It’s probably worth it.” — Richard form The Beach
This post is a part of my 30 Days Writing Challenge. Wanna join me? ;)
