What Are Your Reasons of Living?

Yesterday I attended a workshop held by a psychological center in Surabaya. There were 3 speakers, but there was a young female speaker who captivated me. She was in her early 30, energetic, smart and owned a deep understanding what she was talking about. The third speaker was a father of 3 in his 40s. He was also another star in the topic. He had his heart and calling on the topic.

Then just now, I watched the re-run of my favorite movie serial, NCIS 10. In that episode, one special agent name Ziva David lost her father on one attack. As an agent, Ziva is bold, determined and very effective. But as a daughter, she shed many tears for her father. She recalled her childhood when her father was away for work and now, as an adult, she was once again losing her father for life. She knew in her heart that her lost was nothing but consequences of the work as an agent.

How do you know if you are living the life that you want? Or how do you know when you are living your calling?

I read a quote recently, it said that if you have a desire so deep in your heart and it keeps on bugging you, there must be ways for you to own it. I cannot recall the exact phrase or the writer. But deep down I believe that’s true.

Human beings are the creatures of trial and error. We try, we make mistakes and learn from our mistakes. And then give another (and another) try. At the end of the day, you realize that you learn a lot along the process of trying, make mistakes, keep on trying – and then you reach mastery.

Mastery is not about being perfect in anything that we are doing. For me, mastery means a continuum of discovery. Like my previous examples of two speakers who mastered the topic of workshop and how they pour out then ideas and knowledge related to the to topic. As a participant, the radiance of mastery was somehow transfered from them.

Mastery also means a process of opening our mind to keep on learning and digging deeper to what we love. When someone stops at a certain point and declare oneself as a master, then he is not moving forward to the continuum of mastery. He simply quits.

Of course, every process of mastery and living our calling comes with consequences. Just like agent Ziva David in my example, who had to lose her father. Avoiding consequences as a prevention is acceptable. But avoiding consequences in all will blind us from finding our life calling.

Have a good start this week!