Mafundi

Bud Caddell’s venn diagram has been on my mind a lot this past week, probably because it pretty well sums up my thoughts this past year about what I do for a living and what I ought to do for a living.

I seem to have very little trouble imagining what goes into that big “What we want to do circle”: be creative; contribute to my local community; make things with my hands: create something that has a well-defined beginning, middle, and end; do “good” while I make myself happy. I could go on.

I have somewhat of a grasp on what I do well. But I think I need to explore that more. I think there are probably some things I do well that I’ve never even attempted. And there are very likely several things I think I do well that other people can do much, much better. And, as Bud points out in his post, there are things that I do well that I just don’t like doing for a living. Just because you can do it, and especially just because people will pay you to do it, doesn’t me you ought to do it.

And then there’s “What we can be paid to do”. That’s the hardest one of all. Partly because you don’t know until you ask: “Will you pay me US currency to do this for you?”. And near the very top of the things in the long list of “Things I do NOT do well” is going out on a limb and possibly making a fool of myself.

But how will I know unless I do slither out on that limb?

Getting to live in “Hooray!” is a pretty big incentive.