“We all have been given a sacred commission to contribute to the world by creating things for the betterment of mankind, for the protection and restoration of our natural world and to discover the greatness that lies within ourselves.”
Timothy Simpson – Boredom to Brilliance
The world needs you. But sometimes it doesn’t seem to need you the way you want it to.
Often it seems like the world is guiding you down a road that seems unstoppable and the options you seem to have in front of you are limited in their rewards for you. So, in order to fit into the world it is not uncommon to bend to it’s will and to lead a life that is not your own. After all, you have to make a living and sometimes you have to do things you don’t want to do to get what you need.
Unfortunately, for many people the truth is that they haven’t sought their purpose but their pocket book and in doing so become a part of someone or something else’s purpose. It is not a bad thing to do, but after a while you are faced with the fact that what you are doing doesn’t really inspire you and that in turn will not inspire others.
It isn’t true that you have to “love everything you do” you have to love your purpose and be willing to do things you don’t love to serve your purpose.
I am guilty of letting my purpose get sidetracked for a variety of reasons. A big part of it is that I lose belief that others would be inspired by my purpose or benefit from it.
But what is really going on? Why do you or I lose faith in what we see our purpose is?
I think to a large extent it is because we don’t see anyone else doing what our purpose is. So, it is easy to feel lonely in your mission and lose energy for it. It happens all of the time.
So what is the solution?
You have to plan to preach your mission every way you can. Today we have many ways to publish worldwide and reach a vast audience if we simply do it. So, when I consider the wayward path I have taken I realize that my inconsistency in the pursuit of my mission was caused by a lack of faith in my message.
Also, you have to be careful that you aren’t doing it “to make a buck.” Of course you need to “make a buck” but if that is foremost in your mind it isn’t really your purpose. What you want to do is to create a following of people who find what you are trying to do for them compelling.
Creating good will and giving people a soft place to land and feel comfortable is something that is truly lost in most of the worldly mission. Everyone seems to “require” things of people. You really can’t require anything of people, you can only show them the way and allow them to come along with you.
It is strange that several years after I published Boredom to Brilliance that I have started, stopped, restarted and stopped all because I let the core mission fall by the wayside. The core mission is to show people how participation in the arts can immediately change your life. Not when you become a master, but at the beginning when you start connecting with your creative genius whatever that may be.
In Yoga and the Martial Arts they teach the concept of “The Beginner’s Mind”. What it means is that you never achieve “Mastery”, but you are always a “Student” you are always starting at the beginning, you are always facing a challenge that you have yet to conquer. This how it works in the arts as well. So, while you may just be beginning the fact remains that even the great artist is faced with the same challenges as a beginner and must approach those challenges with a beginners mind.
When I think of the mission I started with Boredom to Brilliance and consider the side tracking I have done I could become very upset with myself, then who knows where I would be with it had I stayed focused and actually continued down that road. All of the help along the way I pushed aside and all of the well meaning supporters I let down because of my lack of faith in myself and in the mission I felt compelled to write about over years of thought.
In the end, you can’t sell something you don’t yourself buy. If you aren’t practicing what you are preaching then all testimony falls on deaf ears. It is not a matter of being the best at something it is a matter of always building on where you are and teaching those who need something to follow that can show them a way out of the darkness.
When I use the term “Sacred Commission” I am not speaking of something sent by God to you, but rather something that speaks to your heart as if God sent it to you, for after all, whatever it is cannot come from anywhere else, regardless of whether you believe in it or not. What is sacred to us, is holy. Treat it as such.
Preach your “Good News” and develop your depth in it. The world needs you, people need you but most of all you need to attach yourself to your own sacred commission and share it generously with others, because nothing else will fulfill you or bring you happiness.