1. All of us have the divine ability to create
2. You find your destiny and or purpose in your passion
3. Very few will make a living at what they are passionate about (not entirely)
4. Manifesting purpose and meaning to the world is a journey (it’s revealed in the art of being and doing, not a destination)
5. Squandering your gifts and talents will bring torment and distress to your life

1. “I’m not very creative” doesn’t work. There is no such thing as creative people and non-creative people. There are only people who use their creativity and people who don’t. Unused creativity doesn’t just disappear. It lives within us until it’s expressed, neglected to death, or suffocated by resentment and fear.

The only unique contribution that we will ever make in this world will be born of our creativity.

If we want to make meaning, we need to make art. Cook, write, draw, doodle, paint, scrapbook, take pictures, collage, knit, rebuild and engine, sculpt, dance, decorate, act, sing it doesn’t matter. As long as we are creating, we are cultivating meaning
(The Gifts of Imperfection, Brene Brown Ph.D., L.M.S.W. pg 98)

We all have the opportunity to create and bring gifts to the world. Most of us pre-judge our ability or the fact that no one would enjoy our gifts. So consequently we just do nothing about it. There is a great reward for manifesting and creating in this dimension. That reward is the overwhelming sense of added value to our lives. I think we all have it within us to help others by serving, or creating things that make their lives a little bit better. So with that thought in mind I would like to offer this new way of looking at our destiny and purpose. I found this new concept quite refreshing on looking at our lives.

When we were younger the teacher and our relatives would ask us, What we wanted to be when we grow up? Now as adults people don’t ask in those certain terms. I have been full-time in my own business and ministry since 1994. It hasn’t always been easy, but I have met so many wonderful and interesting people. I have had the opportunity  to travel quite a bit. Here is the new version of the old question. When you get on a plane it’s very interesting to watch people. That’s really what I love to do the most, meet and watch people in their environment. I always joke with my friends about the two-hour relationship I have with someone between cities on a flight. It is very comical, sometimes I am just too tired and I want to say to them, “you know what I’m sorry but this relationship isn’t going to work for me, because we are just going to break up after this flight.”  I am just teasing, I have made actual friends that I still keep in contact with on flights. I have learned about some really cool important stuff. I have actually been on flights with like 85 team member cheer squad! Talk about an exciting trip. I have been on flights with celebrities. I have sit next to moms, priests, business owners, first time flyers, music moguls, college coaches, NBA Coaches, trainers and the such.  You name it in eleven years of constant flying you will see about everything.

I have narrowed the groups of travellers into groups: business, leisure (family), school or sports, or vacationers. I remember way before laptops and the iPods there was cassettes and or conversation. Being from the midwest doesn’t help because we all know how friendly we are. When you travel in the northeast it is a little different. The people are a lot more business minded and rigid. Striking up a conversation with them isn’t usually necessary. But in this arena for those few moments here is the new version of the what do you want to be when you grow up question.

The first thing we usually ask each other is, 1. Where are you headed today? 2. Are you travelling for business or leisure? 3. WHAT DO YOU DO (for a living)?  That question of ‘what do you do’ has puzzled me. I mean it’s like a measuring stick in others’ minds of your value and or worth.  And let’s face it, not all of us have an interesting comeback and or a way to impress the person asking the question. I love my friend so much he travels all over the world and is a president of a corporation and he is a very interesting, genuine person with loads of wit and wisdom. I would be proud to answer the question of what do you do if I was him. But sometimes the answer to what do you do (for a living) isn’t always a measuring stick for who I am as a person! And I don’t want to be put into a box of someone else’s opinion of who I am as a person or my worth or value. I mean I learned a long time ago that if I said, I work in the church field, or minister it would hardly fly as a conversation starter. Our two-hour relationship would usually never get off of the ground. Primarily because of  people’s pre-conceived ideas of the church world in general.

So with that in mind I would say well, I’m a motivational speaker, or I’m a dreamcaster, or visionary. These are all true. I remember a few years ago I would get so frustrated with the whole conversation and say crazy stuff like, I’m a counselor on Radio. Which was all true by the way, I was on the radio for a good while. But I found myself not wanting to be in a box. I don’t want my worth to be measured in a sound bite of what I do for a living. I don’t want to be measured by which section I sit in on the plane, or how I am dressed for the day, or which new phone or electronic gadget I use. I have rebelled against the system it seems my whole career. I just didn’t want to be put into the box and limited to what others would determine what my worth would be. There have been times I have worn suits, because of my meetings upcoming and time schedules. There are other times I wear coaching sweats and flip-flops in first class.

It wasn’t until I discovered the concept of living in the slash. The honest truth, when someone asks us what do we do, our response should be, “How much time do you have?” Aside of my duties of being a father, husband, friend, son and leader. I make money from being a web designer and mentor and trainer and speaker. But even in all this it’s not the sum total of who I am. So many of us might think of what we do to make money or jobs as the primary thing of importance and anything else we do to create meaning is secondary and not a part of who we are.

Marci Alboher wrote a book called, One Person/ Multiple Careers: A New Model for Work / Life Success. If you were to ask my wife she would say, I’m a Research Assistant, Grad Student, (gardener) (photographer) (book lover). But in Marci’s book it is about living within the slash and not parenthesis. It would be Research Assistant / Grad Student / Gardener / Photographer / Book Lover. This concept gives more value in our lives towards the things that bring meaning. I’ve said before few of us have the opportunity to make money doing what we love, but it doesn’t make what we love any less important or valuable. So in this concept you can live within the slash.

Examples might be, fisherman/documentary filmmaker/singer, or accountant/blogger/ musician. Or how about lawyer/chef/cartoonist. When I discovered this concept it opened a whole new value system to my being. My slashes are becoming many but it’s becoming more of a whole expression of the answer to, “What do you do?”

In this present time here is my answer: I’m a Mentor/Leader/Trainer/Minister/Prophet/Deacon/Writer/Singer/Songwriter/Musician/Psalmist/Football Coach/Theologian/Mystic/…

What are you?