Where can you find your purpose?special circumstances compel me to forward this to the arm-netbook list as (with a little explanation) i believe it's relevant. below is a message from a friend of mine whom i've known for ten years, who has helped me out enormously. although the message below reminds me hilariously of much of the spam / advertising that i receive (and instantly delete or flag), it's only because i phoned her up to find out what it's about that i felt it would be important to (a) tell people that i'll be participating (as part of the campaign ongoing reporting) but also tell people about it so that if they also feel it's something they'd be interested in they can also join in.
in speaking with sarah she said that she's collaborating with a couple of other people she's met recently, to work on a new course, teaching and coaching people to collaborate wisely and with integrity to fulfil specific far-reaching goals.
now, as many people in software libre collaborate together, and they respect the principles of the four freedoms, and their work has far-reaching strategic consequences, it *should* resonate very strongly... but in 20+ years of working with free software i can honestly say that i know of absolutely few software libre developers who have actually *declared* - publicly - an intent to go to *workshops* to improve their effectiveness! i know of several charters (debian, apache, devuan are developing one, parabola are working on one) but i don't know *anyone* who's gone, "hmmm, i have absolutely no clue how to run a successful group collaboration, i have no idea what works well... let's go to a workshop to find out!"
that i include myself in that is something i find to be hilarious.
so. anyway. yes. i'll be attending this workshop. please don't tell dr stallman that i'll be installing proprietary (non-free) software to participate. there are international dial-in numbers to join in (voice-only, obviously). if it resonates at all with anyone here, feel free to sign up at your own responsibility and see what it's about.
l.
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Where can you find your purpose?
Is it a mission you’re supposed to complete?
Is it finding the right job?
Is it following your passion?
Suppose you don’t feel passionate about anything? Or you’re not doing quite the right job? Or you have no idea of your mission, even if you feel there is one out there somewhere for you?
What are you supposed to do then?
You can wait, but for how long?
You can try really hard to find it, but do you even know where to look?
You can ask someone else, but how much do they really know about you?
And then you feel off track, or that vague sense that you’re supposed to be doing something else, but you don’t know what it is. You’re on a search for purpose.
The ironic thing is that the more you search for purpose outside of yourself the more elusive it becomes.
I was working with someone who had a very demanding job. She felt uneasy about the fact that she wasn’t doing her purpose, but had decided she’d have to wait until she retired because she needed the money and didn’t want to give up her job. When I questioned her more deeply about what her purpose was, she said she wanted to experience inner peace and share that with other people. It seemed to me that her highly demanding workplace was the perfect environment for her to develop inner peace. And her role included responsibility for the wellbeing of the entire office, so she was surrounded by opportunities to share any peace she could experience.
This is so often the case. When you’re looking for the right time or opportunity to do your purpose you’re looking in the wrong place. Your true purpose is always something you can do right now. Whether you’re fundamentally about love, freedom, wisdom, peace, joy, potential, creativity or something else, these are all qualities you can take with you to the best and worst job. You can practise them whether you have a passion or not.
The interesting thing is that the more peace, joy or freedom you experience the better jobs you find, the more passionate you become and the more you discover your mission. So it all adds up in the end.
I’m running a free online workshop about purpose this weekend on Sunday at 9am (Pacific time) which is 5pm (UK time). You can sign up for it here.
Sarah McCrum
Speaker, trainer, mentor