I’ll never truly learn who I was made to be

October 29th, 2012 by Agent Kevin Miller

This was taken directly from the posting of a new member in Free Agent Academy (see further below), and I’m betting it’s the truth of what many people reading here actually feel. It sounds great to discover ‘what you were made to do’ and watch movies or read books about people who do.

Matter of fact, I watched one such movie last night, “Music Within“. It’s a true story and was recommended by my good friend Gary Barkalow of The Noble Heart. The main character in the movie is very skilled at speaking, but is dismissed by a professor and told to go “earn a point of view.”

Meaning, he has a skill, but needs to find something he cares about to apply that skill to…before he will be great or fulfilled. Before he’ll have true purpose.

How many of us have some abilities we’re pretty good at, but are merely applying them to what will pay a buck, not something we actually care about?

Real quick, read the full post our member gave this morning and see if you can relate further:

Hi all,
I’m new to FAA as of last weekend, but already I feel very blessed to have found it. I feel like God has been leading me here. I would like to ask you to pray for me in my battle with discouragement and to ask for some input on how others battle with it. I feel like I’m supposed to be here and that God will show me a lot through these courses and through all of you as well, but I’m really feeling overwhelmed at this point. I battle with self defeating thoughts that tell me I’m not capable of this and that I’ll never truly learn who I was made to be. So strong are those thoughts at times that it compels me to quit before I’ve even yet begun. I know that those thoughts are lies though and I don’t want to fall back into a life of complacency as I have been so guilty of doing for far too long. I want more for my life.
Thanks in advance.
M.P.

Tomorrow I’m going to address ‘discouragement’. But right now, I really want to make a point about the fear of “I’ll never truly learn who I was made to be.”

Very few people actually believe they can or even should discover who they were made to be. And there is the initial crux. Belief. A fickle thing belief can be. The prince who is stolen and grows up a pauper believes himself a pauper until the moment he learns he’s son of the king. All of the sudden his belief changes. He didn’t. Just his perspective about himself.

Now I’m not going to throw some pithy statement at you about how you are a child of the King (God) or you have the ‘power of the universe within you!’. I believe the former, but I find the statement pretty benign in causing change. We need something more tangible. Like true experience.

So here’s the deal…the experiences we need in order to discover…won’t find us. Most folks view ‘discovery’ as ‘stumbling upon’. But discovery is a quest. It’s going and doing and actively pursuing.

Two key points here then

1. Belief – If you want to discover who you were made to be, you’ll have to change your belief and unlike most everyone else…truly accept and commit that you are supposed to discover yourself. Even if you still struggle with your actual ability to do so, you start with belief in the ideal itself, for yourself.
2. Active Discovery – Change discovery from ‘stumble upon’ to ACTION. Trying new things. Exposing yourself to your areas of interest and curiosity and care. And like Frans Johansson, best-selling author of The Medici Effect said in regards to entrepreneurs (and I paraphrase), “They aren’t smarter or luckier than anyone else, they just try more things than anyone else.”

How many of you haven’t done much of anything substantially new in a long, long time. Even gone out and made an idiot of yourself?

And hey, on one side we have a sea of folks who have never, and probably will never, give much thought to what they were supposed to be. They are busy existing from day to day and will do so to their grave. Far on the other side we have a few folks constantly ‘seeking who they are’ who never put their foot to the ground and actually DO anything and be of use to anyone.

Somewhere in the middle we have a select few who are seeking and doing WHILE ALSO doing the necessities for existence. They expect more, risk more and give more. They aren’t ‘safe’ people and get a lot of criticism. That is…until they do something worthy, then they get applause. They’ve just gotta stick it out long enough (I’d say four times longer than they ever expected!).

So first for member M.P., we must address Belief. Then begin taking Actions. Lots of actions. Get ourselves in the pursuit.

Photo by SweetCapture