Knowing your place in the world…of work

April 27th, 2009 by Agent Kevin Miller

Knowing your place in the world…of work

"Do you know what the scariest thing is? To not know your place in this world. To not know why you're here. That's…just an awful feeling."
- 'Mr. Glass' in the movie Unbreakable

As an employee you can spend your lifetime being told where your place is in your work. We're born, bred and educated to get a job. To fulfill a role. When was the last time you heard someone exclaim with joy, pride and gratefulness, "I come alive at my work!" Maybe here and there, but seldom. I have some friends who in the world of 'employeedom,' have incredible, lucrative and enviable jobs. I don't discount that. But would they make that exclamation…that they become fully alive in their work? No.

That happens with people like Scott Stearman and Jon Dale and Jay Peroni and Chuck Bowen. Deb Ingino is fervently pursuing it. These aren't celebrated movie stars or pro athletes that the world glorifies. Just people like Scott who at age 32 saw a guy making a bronze sculpture and he just..felt it. He knew he could do it…was meant to do it. Today he creates life-size bronze sculptures that tell stories of faith and truth.

He, and the others, don't just feel they are lucky…they simply feel it's their calling and responsibility. They'd be errant if they tried to deny it.

Are these people special, like superheros or astronauts? Rare exceptions and everyone else is doomed to a life of mediocrity doing work that doesn't mean anything to them?

It doesn't make sense. May your purpose, even if it's seemingly lost in the recesses of your soul…eat at you till you can't deny disrupting your comfort in an effort to answer your true calling.