The world needs people who have come alive.

Yesterday the girls and I went to the library. I picked up several books, and last night dove right into one, called Fool's Gold, by Susan Wooldridge. The intro chapter starts with this quote from Harold Thurman Whitman:

"Don't ask yourself what the world needs, and then go do it. Ask yourself what makes you come alive, and then go do it. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive."

This is HUGE for me...huge! For years now I've been looking to figure out how to best make my talents fit into a prescribed position in society. Right? I mean, everything in life from career fairs on campus to top jobs lists in Forbes, promotes the idea that you need to figure out what the world needs you to do, right? And not only that, but you should pick that one thing and stick with it. And get better and better at it and deep dive on your specialty for the rest of your life. Right? I mean, those are the people our society values. The experts. The people who have xx degrees + xx years of experience = experts.

But, to love doing something, to come alive doing it and putting your heart into is really the life's work that interests me. So to remind me of this every single day, I created a printable with this quote, that you can have here.