The Art of Work

I used to think that your calling was about doing something good in this world. Now I understand it’s about becoming someone good—and letting that goodness impact the world around you.

A calling isn’t something new and shiny. Often it’s something old and predictable, a familiar face that’s easily taken for granted, an old habit or hobby that comes back into our lives.

Where does motivation come from? “It starts with a spark,” Daniel Coyle told me in an interview. “You get a vision of your future self. You see someone you want to become. . . . It’s a very mysterious process.

as we step into our life’s work, we discover that we have been preparing for this our whole lives, even though in that very moment we feel insufficient.

You can’t find your passion if you don’t push through pain.

Before you know what your calling is, you must believe you are called to something.

Every calling is marked by a season of insignificance, a period when nothing seems to make sense. This is a time of wandering in the wilderness, when you feel alone and misunderstood. To the outsider, such a time looks like failure, as if you are grasping at air or simply wasting time. But the reality is this is the most important experience a person can have if they make the most of it.

But for now, if you are intentional and willing to appreciate the fact that you don’t see the whole narrative, you can enjoy more of the journey.

the paradox of vocation. We think that passion comes first, that our desire is primary; but if we are truly called, the work always comes before we are ready. We will have to act in spite of feeling unprepared.

Committing to the wrong thing is better than standing still.

Maybe we all have the power to turn our lives into significant stories if we start to see our difficulties as opportunities.

Take time to look back at all you’ve experienced, and listen to what your life is saying.

But if you hear the call to make your life about more than you and what you can contribute, you will have peace, not anxiety, when facing mortality.

The challenge for any artist—and we are all creating something on the canvas of our lives—is to do our work well while letting go of the result.

Freedom is a great thing, but freedom without restriction can be paralyzing.

Answering a call will sometimes feel that way. It won’t make sense and may even open you up to rejection and criticism, but in your heart you will know it’s right. How? There will be confirmation. You will take a step, and things will happen.

Frankl learned there are three things that give meaning to life: first, a project; second, a significant relationship; and third, a redemptive view of suffering. He realized that if people, even in the bleakest of circumstances, have a job to do, something to return to tomorrow, then they have a reason to live another day.

When you pursue a calling, you will find a community of supporters to champion you along the way. It’s not up to you where these people come from or even how to locate them.

Commitment is necessary. It teaches us to exchange instant gratification for long-term reward and shows us that some change takes time.

Life is too short to do what doesn’t matter, to waste your time on things that don’t amount to much. What we all want is to know our time on earth has meant something. We can distract ourselves with pleasure for only so long before beginning to wonder what the point is. This means if we want true satisfaction, we have to rise above the pettiness of our own desires and do what is required of us. A calling comes when we embrace the pain, not avoid it.

When you are stuck fulfilling an obligation instead of chasing a dream, you aren’t your best self. We all know that.

One way of knowing our gifting,” Jody told me, “is when something that seems easy to us doesn’t seem easy to others.

The future belongs to those who learn more skills and combine them in creative ways. —ROBERT GREENE

Sometimes failure is the best thing that can happen to you if you learn to listen to the lessons in it.

find what you love and what the world needs, then combine them.

The path to your dream is more about following a direction than arriving at a destination.

We live in the age of no excuses.

Finding your calling will not happen without the aid and assistance of others.

In any great narrative, there is a moment when a character must decide to become more than a bystander.