Tag spirituality

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?

I was talking to one of my sons a few months ago about what he wanted to do for a living, and or career. I found his response and logic quite different from what I expected. His reply was, ” I want to get involved in some kind of schooling that requires the least amount of time and the most pay”. You know we have been trained to think this way in our carnal perspectives. Some people try to find jobs, some seek careers with benefits. Remember years ago that if you had a steady job and health insurance and 401k then life couldn’t be better. The only problem is benefits costs more, and cover less. Investments are shaky, and it’s not even a good reason at all to work. Not to mention the idea of doing something that gives meaning and purpose.

I’m not saying we shouldn’t work and provide for our families. But now being fifty and knowing what I know about life and regretful choices I have made concerning my career; it’s painful to think my son has this ideology. It’s like I am going to try to find work and or career based upon my own personal evaluation of my current abilities. I was so pained to know that my son was trying to shrink all of his ambition and creativity in life to a job. That is such a carnal ‘safe’ move. The truth is I know for a fact if he went to school, learned a trade and entered the grind of life with credit, debt, and benefits he would end up miserable in about 20 years. I am trying to help him avoid that at all cost. I mean just think if you were 20 years old again, with no debts and a clean slate what kind of life you would plan and shoot for. I can tell you I could paint you the most color picture of what I would like to accomplish, I definitely wouldn’t be painting with just two colors.  So many want to play life and career safe, and stay in all of the lines. Some even venture out and color with not just black and white, but with the 8 basic colors of the color wheel! Well lets don’t throw a party just yet, my printer is supposed to be able to print 16 and even 32 million color variations! Just think of the colors that we can’t even see.

What I saw my son doing was trying to make a career choice based upon his natural ability, and what he thought he was good at. He never even considered that it might be possible to actually plan and achieve a career path with his dream involved. I honestly think so many people are miserable in our country because things just didn’t pan out the way they had hoped. I also think that the financial crisis is a blessing from God to get people out of their dead-end jobs, and move towards creating meaning and purpose as opposed to just existing. So many are refocusing and redefining themselves in this hour. I have a suspicion that the next ten years of our lives we as people will do more for humanity than the previous fifty!  So what do we do if we have a good job with benefits, and like the work and provides for our families and lifestyle? How do I convert that into meaningful work? Do I have to go back to school or change careers?

The answer is NO! You know the carnal mind will always choose the path with the least amount of risk, and the most sense of certainty. But faith is a scary journey! But then there is plain old stupidity. I mean it’s confusing to me how people go from supporting their families and then all of a sudden quit everything to minister, and not even have any where to minister. So lets take a deep breath here and soak up some thoughts. The truth is we all have an aching deep in our  being to create something, and or do something that has meaning and or significance. The Destiny message has been revealed and we are definitely on board, but no one ever tells us what that looks like or how you get there! What if I told you that you can ‘have’ your cake and ‘eat’ it too!  Let me help you see something; if you can see these things you will become more ready to move forward.

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

“What do you want to be when you grow up?”  I suppose there is not an American alive that hasn’t been asked this question, either in Kindergarten or First grade. I’m thinking today of what the answers might have been when we were young and full of hope, and faith. I remember in my class there were replies of  Teacher, astronaut, Football Player, Singer, Business Owner, and even the President.

Today I am wondering how many of us ‘became’ what we wanted to be when we grew up? Were we told that we can be anything we want, but without ever explaining or teaching how that might ever happen? Or maybe you are still like me, I still often talk to my wife about what I want to be when I grow up. You see I haven’t reached my full desired goal so that must mean that I am just not grown yet?

I think there is a mistake made continually in the fact that we equate what we do with who we are. But on the same note what you do can reveal a bit of who you really are at your core. If you do from a place of being. My classic example would be that of Adam. He was created as a living soul, which is better translated as a ‘living Being’. After the fall he became a “human doing’. In other words in the Garden he did and worked from a place of identity, but outside of the garden he worked from a place of doing, which always leads to a need for identity. Our carnal fallen culture is constantly ‘doing’ to discover their divine identity. But it is so misleading and a terrible trap. The carnal mind is our false sense of self. This form of identity is always equated with doing, and having. The more quantitative you do or have, then surely you are in full assurance of your identity.

So how did we get from ‘being’ to ‘doing? I think it was from the changing culture and times over the years. Over the years our forefathers after the Great Depression were just grateful to have jobs. Most of them farmed and supplied to industry. This ushered in the Industrial age where people and families grew up manufacturing plants, making cars, steel mills, and everything imaginable. This was a great foundation because it afforded the children of these ‘Job Minded’ people to give education to their children. In the old days is was very rare that someone would actually not retire in the job that they had done for thirty or forty years. Now a days, its more on the rare side.

After our forefathers children went to school, many of them became our parents, and ‘career minded’. You see the career minded group was playing into the false sense of being, more like doing. I am what I do, and or what I have, and even who I know. You see back in the old days people would pick ‘Jobs’ based upon talent and ability.  So they would try to apply for Jobs that they could do, and hopefully do it really well, and long enough to receive some benefits. The ‘Career’ group is more focused upon the pay and benefits. This group would go to school based upon probable need in the future, and benefits and pay scale. While longevity is still the goal, but not without stepping-stones of merit along the way.

When I was in High School we were required to take aptitude test that would somehow formulate the best job, or career choice. It was a grueling three-day test to help the counselors help guide you in the right career path. I think it was a military backed test so, pretty scary really. They were probably trying to sway the brainiacs, luckily I wasnt in the radar. So after you find what you might be good at, then you were to find the schooling and training to help you fulfill what you are good at. Then hopefully negotiate a pay. The biggest issue I feel cheated about in this journey some 35 years ago, was the counselor never asked me what are you passionate about? It was always work based, like what do you think you could do, or like to do. In other words lets test your skill set, and find the best paying job.

But there is a new generation rising up. They might work a job for pay just to get by or pay the bills, they realize that is a life-sustaining event. I read somewhere for the first time in history there will be more educated people working in fields of life that they weren’t trained in for the first time in History. I think it was a rather large number. Like 60% or higher will work in a field they weren’t trained in. Example of a Financial executive gets offers from IBM or some company, with good salary, benefits. But he will choose a non-profit sector start-up to help suffering people in other countries. Believe me when I tell you this in not an isolated event, this is the movement of our generation.

Our forefathers wanted a job, their children and children’s children wanted a career, but this group wants to make a difference and live their passion!  When you think about it, when you choose to live your passion you actually are making affirmations and answering the questions of ‘What to you want to BE when you grow up, not DO!’ The only thing is most people don’t get paid to live their passion, but its the only way to live an authentic life, and discover the real U. The next blog I will go into more detail about that I’m talking about. Until then Grace & Peace and share this please!