All our live’s need some purpose!
I happened to flick on daytime TV with my lunch yesterday, to catch a gentleman trying to sell some antique to a dealer. When he was asked why, he replied “The money will go towards a burial plot” – the dealer agreed it was a good idea to make these types of preparation.
Are you sitting in the waiting room, wondering if you’ll be the next one to be called by Dr Death?
I’ve been thinking lots recently about my youngest, and by extension, myself.
When I was young, I was educated in the private school system. To some degree or another, we were led to belive that we were the inheritors of the British Empire…
From this privileged stance of being a young Master of the Universe, I had the self-confidence to head to South Africa to make my fortune.
I met plenty of young British people who were also seeking fame and fortune in the former colony.
I was lucky enough to have one family member there who helped me to find my first job, and whom I could stay with, whilst I got my first pay cheque and sorted out cars and flats etc.
It never occurred to me that I might fail.
I didn’t have a purpose as such, just what every young man expects; enough money to have a fun life and opportunities to train.
I first trained in Computing and then became a Broker.
These two strands supported me for thirty of more years of gainful employment.
The confidence was dented a few times along the way, when I realised I wasn’t good enough, or in point of fact well enough behaved, to fit to certain company’s standards!
But you readjust and rebuild and carry on!
Spiritual Journey
It was these platforms that allowed me time and money to consider other aspects of life. (If you’ve read my book, you’ll know all about my Spiritual Journey and the wonderful people who influenced me along the way – I’ll not retell that story here…)
If I hadn’t been under severe stressful pressure from my work environment, I’d never have started looking for the way out with eventually became my third career Qigong.
Rumi, the ancient mystic Persian poet says:-
“If I had known the real way it was,
I would have stopped all the looking around.
But that knowing depends
on the time spent looking!”
How would an atheistic, ex catholic, City boy ever have found his way to spirituality in the 1980’s, if it hadn’t been for the mind-breaking stress?
I certainly don’t know of many who did.
(This is a rather arrogant assumption, that my path is “The Best” and that all the others are wrong!! I really didn’t mean to judge, just more of an observation but it’s difficult to not see that by putting yourself “up there” you always need to put somebody else “down there” – forgive me, my ex-colleagues)
Modern Life
What on earth then is a young person to do these days?
My lovely ex-brother-in-law, sadly now passed, Vincent used to say that “the UK had lost it’s confidence”
It’s interesting to see that by many metrics, as a country we are thriving, but we seem to be the last people to see this truth.
Modern life seems to have become somewhat more homogenised, as we strive ever more for efficiency.
My older son was telling me about restaurant booking systems that since Covid, keep the tables full of people who plan, but completely remove any possibility of spontaneity.
The more efficient life becomes, the more we the people get squeezed for choice; conversely, the more the owners generate profit. When everything is run for peak profit, there’s only going to be one section of society that’s losing out…
So, what does a society like this hold for a young man or woman these days?
The Pandemic has shown so many people that there’s more to life than sitting in an office. So many people have seen that life as a drone, pushing through a boring 9-5pm job just to get paid for the weekend is NOT what they want.
Interestingly, the rise of AI seems to suggest that many of these more boring jobs will disappear as the machines take over, perhaps this gives us some hope for a creative flowering?
I worry that our universities, by and large, have turned into businesses selling useless degrees to enslave our children in debt, before they even earn a penny.
They have such a great socialising effect however, that it’s a wonderful three years of freedom, before the horrors of daily life begin! (For the majority of people)
Conscription
I see the UK government is trialling an “apprentice scheme” for the Army. A paid year, where young people can “try out” the armed forces.
Various countries have had different conscription ideas. When I lived in South Africa, the young people had a choice of two years in the Army, Navy or Airforce, but if they didn’t want to fight (And South Africa was involved in a proxy war at that time…) they were offered the roles of Nurses, Policemen, Firemen or Postmen.
I’d rather not boost military spending at all, I think it’s a complete waste of cash, but that being said, a system like this would really help young people to understand their purpose.
I really appreciated the last company that I worked for, they had a graduate program that accepted “anybody” onto their computer training course.
What I mean by that is that they interviewed the candidates and chose the people they wanted on the course, but you didn’t need any background in computing at all.
They just wanted clever people from any walk of life who were prepared to be moulded in the ways and tools that this company needed..
There was a three month teaching programme, where they all got paid, and trained to an excellent standard.
Nobody lost out, everybody would have skilled up amazingly, and the company could cherry-pick the best candidates… everybody was a winner.
There really aren’t that many types of these innovative schemes available these days to young people.
We used to have many apprenticeship style programmes unfortunately often employers took these to be “free labour, with zero hours contacts…”
Money
The big question is “How do you earn enough money, to buy yourself enough time to figure out who you want to be!?”
Very few people actually get paid to do what they love.
Even more people have never even stopped to think what it is that they really love…
I was really please with my daughter. Once she came to me and said “Dad, I think I need to get a serious job in the City, like you did!”
I recoiled and said “Don’t ever do that!” – she kept her job working as a manageress in a Cinema, a nice enough job, she kept pushing her music and art, until one day she said “I’ve got an apprenticeship as a Tattoo artist!” – She’s never looked back and earns really well. It was about setting herself up in a decent job, that wasn’t TOO soulless until she could figure a way through the maze to get to the prize of doing what she loved.
Lots of it comes back to confidence and character.
To get past of the boring jobs, you have to present as a confident and fun person.
Not something everybody can do.
What about figuring out life’s meaning? That’s even more difficult.
Some people from birth know that they want to work with animals, as an example.
I remember an acquaintance in Scotland who was so obsessed with becoming a vet, but was unable to get the right qualifications needed when he left school.
He did get the correct qualification to become a dentist however.
He went through, got his degree in dentistry, which then allowed him to start again at the bottom to study to become a vet!
He achieved his life’s ambition, and now has his dream job, and a dog with amazing teeth! (I made the last bit up…!)
Something’s in life often give you a clue.
You might like sports but realise that it’s actually giving young people the skills that really drives your love.
You might love reading, but realise that the accumulated knowledge lends itself better to being a Teacher.
Maybe helping your Grandad helps you to realise that helping the old in general is your calling.
Most of these things are vocations, rather than careers..
Perhaps you just love maths, science or money, perhaps you’ll find that eventually these lead your some sort of charity or philanthropy.
What I’m getting at is that we need NOT to drift through life being tossed on the currents, taking whatever comes along, just because it’s there…
“I was a Lawyer, because my father and grandfather… etc, etc …”
Let your Heart guide you and not your Brain!
Having a Life Purpose is one of the greatest indicators of a healthy and happy longevity too.
I think of an amazing Campaigner I know who’s just celebrated her 90th birthday, and who hasn’t stopped working for just causes for a day since her 30’s!
You need something to drive you along, and the clue is that it’s “usually” not Golf, Bridge or drinking Pink Gin! (Each to their own…!)
They’ll take me out of my classroom in a box I have so much writing and teaching to do…
(I reserve the right to have a sabbatical and sit in a cave for a year by the way…)
Find your Life Purpose, find your Vocation, and NEVER give up, no matter what “appears” to stand in your way!
(And don’t bury yourself, before you are dead!)
Hao La!! (Chinese for “Everything is Good – already!”)