Seeking

 

All of us have things that we do better than other things, but our aspirations in life don't always start out seeking to optimize those things.

Designed to learn by copying, the first thing we do is reflect who our care givers are. Ducks want to learn to waddle, swim and quack even if they are born without a voice or have one leg. 

The secret to success is learning to want what we do best. Focusing on the swim can seem impossible if we can't waddle to the water and heaven forbid we should want to sing opera! Unfortunately many of us balk against advice that does not jibe with our desires and I think we need to be given permission to fail on our own. Of course one in a million, or maybe even ten million do learn to quack some sort of opera, but there are an awful lot of people and choices in between success and failure in one particular area.

It is the journey through what seems like failure that can discover the path to success if we are only open to it. 

And, we are not only hindered by our weak spots, we can also be hindered by our strengths. I know, at least, one person, who is above average at everything he tries, except possibly very close personal relationships. How does a person like this find what he both loves and enjoys enough to make a career out of it?

There is guilt if he doesn't pick the one that makes the most money. Doesn't he owe his children that kind of a life style? There is frustration if he cannot make a living at the one thing he loves the most (possibly because he actually loves his children more, so there is a hidden conflict.) And, because he fails at almost nothing, failure feels like a tragedy no matter how trivial it is.

Seeking our own level in life, that fine point where we are satisfied, happy, and still eager, is not easy for anyone. It takes a lot of work, whether that work is in discovering our goal, reaching our goal, or maintaining the feeling we want upon reaching that goal.

We are seekers.