I’ve been thinking a lot lately about giftedness.
It’s kind of the idea that each and every human being has certain gifts, in unique composition and degree, and that there is something, or maybe even many somethings that you, that I, that any particular individual can do better than anyone else in the world.
I personally, because I’m a Christian, try to fit that together with the concept of a calling, which is idea that each and every person is called to fill a certain role, maybe meet certain needs, or be in a certain place socially or spiritually.
(I ran across this inventory tool while checking that out. It says I’m good at writing and teaching and administration.)
Here’s the real question: am I, by doing what I’m doing right now, “being the best I can be?”
Paul Graham puts it extremely well in his must-read essay on how to do what you love. Prestige and money can’t compete, when it comes right down to it, with the incredible quality of life that those who love what they do and do what they love enjoy.
Nor, if I might add, with the quality of life that those who know that they are focusing on the maximal inflection point in the cosmos to accomplish the greatest good – for them.
That’s what I want. I think that’s what we all want. And I think that’s what we all need.
Or else little pieces of us start dying, day by day, and before we know it, we’re zombies. Walking, talking, dead people, dying for the weekend.
Which is double plus uncool.