“ We ’ ll all face times when we need to remember that our experience isn ’ t for us , that there ’ s a purpose beyond our passion or even our discouragement .”
what no one else sees , those long hours and late nights turn into months and years and decades . In the middle of the mundane grind of the work , you suddenly realize you ’ re an expert . You ’ re the go-to , the phone-a-friend , the mentor — all because you made a choice to show up when you weren ’ t , well , any of those things . At one point , you may have been the freshman , the newbie , the intern , but you didn ’ t let the hardships or unspectacular cadence of the showing up and going home stop you from showing up again the next day .
One surefire way of identifying our life ’ s passions is to follow the trail around the bend of our experiences . Have you ever thought about the things you ’ ve chosen to spend a lot of time doing ? Not because of a paycheck or a grade on a report card or midyear review — although the things you chose may have very well started off as obligations . Now you do these things because you want to , you get to . If you ’ re trying to figure out your passions , those are the places that serve as a telling start .
In the words of rapper Macklemore ,
The greats weren ’ t great because at birth they could paint .
The greats were great because they ’ d paint a lot .
Malcolm Gladwell wrote about this absurd persistence in his book Outliers : The Story of Success , citing research that essentially boils down to this : “ Ten thousand hours is the magic number of greatness .” To achieve greatness , you ’ ve got to put in the time . Time is what earns us experience . And experience will , more often than not , point us in the direction of our passions .
When I would go on camping trips as a little girl , someone might use one of those artificial fire starters wrapped in yellow plastic to cheat and get a campfire going for s ’ mores or singing around . But as convenient as these little logs were , they would never be enough to keep the fire going into the late hours of the night as the stars came out and the temperatures cooled .
Those memories make me think about the apostle Paul , how he understood what was needed when a fire begins to falter :
I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God .
These words aren ’ t a harsh rebuke but a wholehearted reminder . The lull — or even the unexpected accumulation — of experience can tempt us into loneliness or discouragement . We ’ ll all face times when we need to remember that our experience isn ’ t for us , that there ’ s a purpose beyond our passion or even our discouragement . But remembering takes effort . Fanning and sustaining flames requires work that a simple fire starter doesn ’ t .
“ We ’ ll all face times when we need to remember that our experience isn ’ t for us , that there ’ s a purpose beyond our passion or even our discouragement .”
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