Friday Inspiration

A couple of quotes have appeared and reappeared in my life enough times lately for me to want to share them.  Here are the two as our Friday's inspiration/food for thought, plus a link to an excellent blog entry I came across today. 

"As the flower blooms, the bees come uninvited."
- Sri Ramakrishna

This one was a gift from the Richard Leider/Dick Bolles's life purpose/career workshop in Chicago, and it came as we delved into the exploration of our core gifts.  Dick Bolles has always said that the road to your dream job passes through you.  His idea is that, rather than trying to desperately adjust ourselves to every job that's out there, we should explore who we really are and what we really want and then go after those opportunities that match that. The success rates of such job searches is dramatically higher, as is the ultimate level of satisfaction experienced by the job seeker once hired.

It's a philosophy that I subscribe to with all my heart and soul.  When we know exactly what it is that we have to offer the world and what it is that we really, really want in our lives, we begin to attract the right people and opportunities. It's like that feeling of flow that each of us has experienced (all too fleetingly, most of the time) and that all of us cherish - the sense of getting things accomplished effortlessly and easily, as if on a wave of inspiration. 

You blossom in your work when you feel that your work is in line with your deepest desires, when you have a sense of purpose, when you know how you want to use your unique gifts to make this world a better place in a way that's meaningful for you.  As we blossom in that way, opportunities begin to show up, almost without our having to do anything more to attract them.

"The foolish man seeks happiness in the distance; the wise grows it under his feet."
- James Oppenheim.

I first heard this quote during the Pangea Day broadcast and made a note of it for myself.  Then yesterday it landed in my mailbox curtesy of my coach Hillary.  It struck me because I've been learning in my own life that happiness really does lie within us.  For years I was always the one jetting off to some far-off land, planning to move to London or Sicily or Beijing, figuring out what new activity I could engage in or what new interesting people I could  meet.  It was fun for a while, but after some time, I realized that the only thing this created was an insatiable hunger, as one thing after another proved to have been an illusory goal.  It took settling down and deepening connections where I already was, making a difference where I'd been placed, for me to realize a better recipe toward that greater sense of happiness that I was always seeking.

And, as a final point of inspiration, check out this post, Your Brain on Jazz, from Robyn McMaster, brain scientist and blogger extraordinaire.  Her "riff" on improvisation and its importance in our lives is rich and thought-provoking, as is her question: "Is your work richly rewarding because you create new melodies on the fly?" 

Happy Friday everyone!

Comments

[Robyn]

Hi Izabella, I truly appreciated your thoughtful analysis of my post on jazz and how the creative side of our brain works very differently than the logical side of our brain. A whole person needs each, just as the bees come to the flowers!

I read a poem by Robert Frost that descibes butterflies drawn to nectar that you would enjoy related to your post:

Calling all butterflies from every race
From source unknown but no special place
They ever will return to all their lives,
Because unlike the bees they have no hives.

The milkweed brings up to my very door
The theme of wanton waste in peace and war
As has never been to me before...

I was not able to locate the entire poem at the moment, but I sense it is one you would enjoy.

[Izabella Tabarovsky]

Robyn, what a beautiful poem... Thank you so much for sharing it! I look forward to more thoughtful and inspiring conversations!