Tonight I find myself thinking once again about the concept of “right livelihood.” I am borrowing from a Buddhist phrase that has to do with finding and doing work that is aligned with one’s spiritual values and with certain Buddhist precepts. For my purposes what I am describing is the notion that a person who is doing work that they love, that feeds their soul, that “feels right” is a very fortunate person indeed. Increasingly I am encountering people who are feeling a sense of misalignment, of not feeling like they’re in the right place doing the right thing. Or I am talking with people who have a sense that they are called or meant to do something more, something larger than what they’re doing right now. They are out of alignment in a different way, and are feeling restless and disquieted, and often dissatisfied with what they are doing.
I have been in that space and have not fully emerged from it yet. While I believe I am currently where I’m supposed to be, doing work that I committed to doing, I have also had a sense that there’s more out there for me and that whatever that is will find me when the time is right. In the meantime I am grateful for the work I’m doing and the people who are working alongside me both at my current institution and colleagues who are doing similar work across the country. I was in conversation with just such a colleague today, a person who does similar work to mine at an institution in another state. She was visiting this area to attend a conference.
When I asked her how she was doing she told me she was trying to sort out her “what’s next,” that she was looking for a new job and/or a new purpose. She is experiencing the sense of restlessness, the desire to be doing something different, something larger with her life, even though she couldn’t yet describe what that is or how it might play itself out. I spent some time listening to her talk, offering her my thoughts about how she could listen for cues and clues that would point her in the a new direction, that would at least show her the next step or two she needs to take on her journey.
In the past few days I have spoken to friends and family members who find themselves in work situations that are less than satisfactory–where their skills are not valued or where the work that they’re doing doesn’t play to their strengths or draw upon their creativity. As a result, they often feel badly about themselves, dissatisfied and yet uncertain about what to do about it. I’ve been in that place often enough to know the terrain very well. What I know about it is that in order to get someplace else, you have to first acknowledge where you are and then begin to define where you want to go and what it looks like. If you don’t set a destination then how will you know how to get there and how will you know when you’ve arrived? I’ll be in conversation with them in the weeks ahead. Perhaps we can each begin sketching out for ourselves what some potential new directions might look like and thereby beginning to lay out the mileposts for the trip.
I’m grateful for these times of restlessness that hit occasionally. They nudge me to ask questions of and check in with myself. Often what I learn guides me onto a slightly different path–usually nothing drastic or dramatic–that takes me farther down the road in the direction my life is meant to take. I’m hopeful that I can be of assistance to others who are likewise on this journey of discovering what’s next. My first piece of advice, relax, pay attention to the signs and let them lead you to the next steps. I guarantee that as you begin to quiet your mind, shutting down all the noise and distraction it can make, the answers are there. Good words for me to remind myself as well. And so I shall.
