(Note: This is a foreshadowing of my next post…stay tuned.)
From Epictetus Discourses Book 3, Chapter 8:
As we train ourselves to deal with sophistical questions, so we ought to train ourselves day by day to deal with impressions: for these too propound questions to us.
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So, inevitably you must ask, “if I am not doing what I love then do I need to change it?” Should I just accept my fate, and stoically perform my duty? The short answer is “yes and no.” Take your career for example. Sometimes you are not in a position to immediately change it, your livelihood. There are externals that you have to consider like basic income, moving, family, children in school, etc. However, if you are not in a career that is healthy, wholesome, and completely virtuous (consistent with nature), eventually you must change it so you can “do what you love.” You can make yourself accept a career that is not what you love, you can love doing it by convincing yourself it is your fate, but… Eventually, you must find a career consistent with your virtue and one that at its very heart you can say, “I am glad I am doing this.” Continue reading
We should all be so lucky to find our dream calling. That thing that we are so called to doing that we are “self-actualized” (see Maslow’s Hierarchy; also see The Problem with Maslow). I wonder if any of you have had a self-dialogue like I have had similar to the ones below:
“As soon as I find my calling, then I’ll be happy. Certainly, what I am doing now certainly is not it. I am definitely not fully satisfied doing this/being here. I need to find my dream job/life/place to live/love/home/etc., and then I will find happiness.” YOU ARE STUCK IN A TASK THAT IS NOT YOUR LOVE.
or maybe you’re here:
I recently had an opportunity to meet up with some old friends from the military at a retirement for a friend. This friend was doing what he loved, the Air Force was his dream job. I was envious. I retired from the military precisely because it was not what I loved. It was not my “dream job.” My friend will be moving on to a high-powered corporate management gig, and I started to wonder how he will do outside of his “dream job.” But then I realized something about my friend. It wasn’t that he was doing what he loved, it’s because he loves what he’s doing. My friend is going to love his new gig because he simply has a great attitude about things wherever he goes. More specifically, he loves making “good things happen to people” (his words). Fortunately for him, in management (a field used in every industry and calling) it always involves people.
This retirement event was a soul-searching one for me, Continue reading
“Every error implies conflict; for since he who errs does not wish to go wrong but to go right, plainly he is not doing what he wishes.” Epictetus (See Full Quote Here)
What is Epictetus getting at here? If you read the full excerpt, there is a lot to digest in this philosophical pondering. In the end, it comes down to this: Think before you do. When I take an action, when I make a decision about what to do, and when I choose how I will live my life, it should be consistent with my values, with my rationality. Continue reading