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Carefree Wandering

There are these lines in Paul Cohelo's Alchemist that I love about the shepherd turning a year later to sell wool and being unsure if he would meet the girl there

But in his heart he knew that it did matter. And he knew that shepherds, like seamen and like traveling salesmen, always found a town where there was someone who could make them forget the joys of carefree wandering.

What is true of the the power of love and making a person want to settle is also true of  finding purpose in life. If and when a person is able to connect their work to purpose they care about, the desire for change disappears. They are able to instead channel that energy into enhancing the quality of the work they are already doing. As I write this, I remember S a brand manager I used to know a couple of decades ago. He worked for a company that made products for senior citizens, I was a consultant there. S was responsible for creating awareness of their new products and building awareness of what already existed. 

When I first met him, this job was still new to him but he dug in and delivered good but not great results. If his purpose was not aligned to the work he might have struggled to push himself harder. S got promoted maybe once in this whole time that I have known him. His results improved tremendously over the years - he speaks at conferences and is interviewed by many trade publications. 

He may not have a corner office but he is the face of his company to many. I watched an interview he did recently and marveled at how he has not aged a day in two decades - he looks truly happy and excited about what he has done for so many years. He has indeed found what it takes for a person to  forget the joys of carefree wandering.


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