Loving Life, Gaining Satisfaction

"I'm doing what I like to do, not what I have to do."

• Allen L. Smith
  

Loving Life, Gaining Satisfaction

I was in a meeting trying to concentrate on the matters at hand, when one of the men at the table made the comment, "I've retired now three times. I came out of retirement to do this because it's what I want to do; not what I have to do." With that statement, my whole focus shifted.

I was now listening for more wisdom to come out of his mouth. I wasn't disappointed.

"The primary purpose of life is to help mankind." Allen said a few minutes later.

I've spent the better part of two weeks just thinking about what he said and wondering how many of us really understand what he was saying. Do I?

I was sitting at another table with a teen aged boy less than a week later. I was getting to know him. "What is it you'd like to do more than anything else in the world?" I asked.

He was having some trouble and I wanted to know what he really wanted to do with his life. I didn't want to know what he thought I wanted to hear and I didn't want to know if he could recite what his parents wanted him to do with his life.

He didn't have an answer right off. I think he was caught off guard.

"What are you willing to give your life to? I continued.

"I want to help people." He replied.

"Everyone says that." I said. "That's not enough! It's too vague. What I really want to know is what you want so much that you won't let anyone or anything stand in your way as you work to get it."I persisted.

"I always thought I wanted to play in the NBA." He said.

"That's not true! You let yourself get kicked off the school team this year. So, you didn't really want it. You were pretending to want it."

He looked across the table at me with a thoughtful stare. I could see the answer working from deep inside his mind and heart getting ready to crystallize and reveal itself.

"I want to be a doctor!"

There it was. He knew what he wanted all along, but he didn't know what to do to get there. So we spent the next hour or so creating a plan with steps he could take to get there. I watched the excitement build inside of him as his map to become a doctor grew before his eyes. It's a wondrous thing to watch an idea change the world!

As I drove him home I had to ask myself, "Are you doing what you really want to do with your life?" I looked at the young man in the seat across from me and answered with an emphatic, "Yes." Many times we don't get paid money to do what we really want to do. Our pay is something much more valuable than that. It's a deep sense of satisfaction that can't be obtained in any other way.