The Truth About Your Calling With Seth Godin

That we… we look back a year in our life, 5 years ago, and we rarely say I’m disappointed that I spoke up.

I’m disappointed that I did my art.

I’m disappointed that I connected to somebody.

We don't.

What we regret is not doing that.

I think we can do better than that.

 

 

So a question that we get often here is from people who are struggling to figure out what should I do with my life?

How do I find my passion or my purpose or my calling?

And you’ve said I’m not sure that anyone has a calling.

Can you speak to that?

 

This whole calling, passion thing is complete nonsense. It’s… as Steven Pressfield would call it, the resistance.

That van Gogh, if he had been born 20 years later or 20 years earlier, he wouldn’t have done what he did.

It’s not like he... some angel came down when he was born and said, “You’re going to become an impressionistic painter.”

He wanted to do a thing but he didn't know what the thing was.

And if Steve Jobs had been born 20 years earlier, he would have done a different thing.

This isn’t about waiting for the right answer.

Because there is no right answer.

What there are challenges we can sign up for and emotions we can experience.

There are kinds of engagements we can seek out and ones that we don't want to.

 

If you're the kind of person that only feels good when all the chips are in red 86, well then you need to go find that kind of activity. If you're the kind of person that would rather have a small circle of people who are committed to you for a long time, find any variation of those activities.

But if you’re waiting for the perfect horse on that carousel to come around, you’ve missed 3, 4, 5, 7 cycles while you’re waiting.

All the horses are just as good. It’s the same carousel. Just get on the damn horse.

 

 

And who knows what’s gonna happen in another 20 or 30 years or…

 

 

Your life doesn't get more sensational when you have more followers on Twitter.

That’s not what you ought to be keeping score of.

It’s does this interaction leave behind a trail that I’m proud of?

And does having the interaction make me glad that I did it and want to do it again?

 

And, you know, so I know people who run nonprofits and some of them are big and some of them are small and they’re getting equal amounts of satisfaction because bigger isn’t the point. More isn’t the point.

 

What I’m saying is finding a thing that works is sufficient and that’s the challenge.

 

There’s no prize for originality at all. You should steal a different person’s idea.

What we’re asking you to do is choose to matter in a way that aligns with who you want to be.

 

And I think it’s also important to talk about this idea how you do things matters.

 

And what they’re actually looking for is a way to hide by saying I’m looking for the perfect purpose.

 

You publish every day and you’ve said it’s one of the top 5 career decisions you’ve ever made.

Why?

 

Even if no one read it, I would blog every day. I think everyone should do so.

 

If you know that tomorrow you have to say something about something you noticed, about something that might help someone else, about an opinion you have that might stand the test of time, you will form those opinions, you will notice those things, you will invent that idea. And if day after day week after week you leave this trail behind of thoughtful examination

of your world, you can’t help but get better at whatever it is you seek to do. And if as a byproduct other people read it and trust you more, that’s a jackpot. Right?

 

My goal is not to have more readers.

My goal is not to sell more books.

My goal is to be trusted in a way that I can make the change that I seek to have happened in the world.

Return on trust.

How do you gain permission to talk to people in a way that they want to be talked to?

You don't do that with SEO and with gaming social media strategies.

You do that by showing up in a way that you’d want someone to show up for you.

And I still don't understand why people don't do this.

I need to get back into that spirit of how do I pick among three and really commit.