What Is Needed Here?
Finding meaningful work
“Here is the great temptation of the modern age, this universal infection of fanaticism, this plague of intolerance, prejudice and hate which flows from the crippled nature of man who is afraid of love and does not dare to be a person.
— Thomas Merton
*
We live in a house of mirrors and think we’re looking out the windows.
~ Fritz Perls
*
A genius never grows out of a perfectly balanced family, there must have been fools; a fool is always the first sign of the genius and the last, as foolishness and wisdom are sisters.
~Carl Jung
*
What do you define as meaningful work? For most of us, our work has meaning if it enables us to fulfill our purpose. A clear purpose gives us focus, direction and motivation. We use the lens of purpose to consciously choose our work and we feel satisfied and rewarded when our good work bears fruit…
This troubled and troubling world needs us more than ever. It needs our skills, our caring, our perseverance. We still want to contribute. We still want our contribution to be meaningful. But who gets to define meaning? It is the world, not us. We stop asking the world to give us opportunities to fulfill our purpose. Instead, we look to the world to tell us what it needs from us. To discover what is meaningful, we learn to ask this question:
What is needed here? Am I the right person to contribute to this need?
— Margaret Wheatley
We are born into energies that come with our lineage, our intelligence, our talents and environment. They seem to be imperatives, they feel like the reason we are alive and that if we don’t or can’t express them we have missed our life. I was determined from a young age not to be distracted from what I regarded as my natural mission, to express my talents.
I don’t think that way anymore. Instead of asking what my personal expressive needs are, I’ve come to a point where I want to know what the world needs and if I can address that need with my abilities or knowledge.
