The Art of Work: A Proven Path to Discovering What You Were Meant to Do

by Jeff Goins

Maybe we all have the power to turn our lives into significant stories if we start to see our difficulties as opportunities.

When you are stuck fulfilling an obligation instead of chasing a dream, you aren’t your best self. We all know that. This is why we find more and more people moving from one occupation to the next. They are doing their best to be happy but failing miserably. Most of us have done this at some point, quitting one thing for the promise of something better. And we were disappointed to find that the next job or relationship held the same complications as the one we were escaping.

What we all want is to know our time on earth has meant something. We can distract ourselves with pleasure for only so long before beginning to wonder what the point is. This means if we want true satisfaction, we have to rise above the pettiness of our own desires and do what is required of us. A calling comes when we embrace the pain, not avoid it.

Most people waste the best years of their life waiting for an adventure to come to them instead of going out and finding one.

Every single thing that has ever happened in your life is preparing you for a moment that is yet to come.

if the practice is enjoyable, then you aren’t growing.

Muscle grows through strain and stress that create tiny tears in the muscle fiber and cause it to expand. Skills and knowledge are developed the same way.

serendipitous

Successful people are just as “lucky” as the unsuccessful. The difference is they do something remarkable with their lucky moment while the rest of the world sits around, waiting for the next lucky streak to come.

Go big or go home,

If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again. Then quit. There’s no point in being a damn fool about it. —W. C. FIELDS

When your competency exceeds the difficulty of a task, you are bored. And when the difficulty exceeds your competency, you are anxious.

Freedom is a great thing, but freedom without restriction can be paralyzing.

Sometimes, a calling is simply accepting your role in a story that is bigger than you.