On Serving Your Mission

I love reading the biographies of great historical figures — Genghis Khan, Alexander the Great, Roosevelt. At the peak of their success, these people seem to act not by their own will, not for personal gain, but as conduits of some greater mission. They knew the universe was working its designs through them, and they served that calling.

That kind of service has nothing to do with pride, and nothing to do with money. Though some onlookers do mistake it for selfishness — the firmness, the unpopular decisions a goal demands. And the financial success, which is only ever a tool, they take for a hunger to get rich.

Strange as it sounds, knowing yourself to be someone chosen to fulfil a calling through service to a great mission gives you a boundless faith in your own strength.

When others talk about freedom in the sense of “I do what I want,” here it’s the opposite — it’s about sacrificing your personal freedoms for a higher goal. Working twenty-four hours a day, pouring all your strength and resources into realizing an image, a picture in your head, with no guarantee of success whatsoever — where is the freedom in that? This is true service, given in full.

People always feel that kind of energy, and they’re drawn to those who live for something larger. Such people become a beacon, a point of support for everyone around them.

I feel my own calling too, but at times I doubt it — like most people around me. How do you get free of those doubts?

There are three levels of certainty in our thoughts and feelings:

— trust (in Russian, do-verie — “before faith”; it still needs proof);

— faith (an element of hope is still in there);

— knowing (an inescapable fact).

To move to the level of “knowing” in accepting your mission means setting the doubts aside. The universe will give you everything you need to reach it.

All in its own time. Even the most remarkable people needed years — sometimes decades — to formulate, crystallize and understand their life’s work, to give themselves over to it completely, past all the wavering and the uncertainty.

“We sing a song to the madness of the brave! The madness of the brave — there is the wisdom of life!” — Maxim Gorky.

Here’s to all of us becoming a conduit of the universe in carrying out our mission! 😎