What the world needs

"Don't ask yourself what the world needs.

Ask yourself what makes you come alive and then go do that.

Because what the world needs is people who have come alive."

Howard Thurman

I spent Saturday afternoon with my good friend, Kay, starting to make a video to publicise my book when it finally comes out. The afternoon involved rolling balls of yarn, filming with an iPhone controlled by an iPad, working out how to make a question mark shadow and setting up a mini studio in Kay's lounge.

It was not straight forward. It involved going where no ball of yarn had gone before, and I'll admit, I was a little lost. I knew what it was we trying to do. I had no idea how to do it. Kay, on the other hand, was in her element: running around with tape and cardboard and really large sheets of paper and camera equipment. If there was a problem, I could see the cogs turning until the problem was fixed.

There is something inspiring and encouraging in watching someone come alive doing the thing they love.

What do you love? What makes you come alive? Think about it...and don't just give the answers you think you should give or the answers you think would be expected from you. What is it that really makes your eyes light up and the cogs in your head start turning?

Is it talking to people? Playing rugby? Knitting? Looking after kids? Learning? Reading? Thinking big thoughts? Working out ways to make the big thoughts become reality? Cooking? Making money? Solving problems?

I knew it was writing for me one Sunday afternoon. Sundays used to be my writing time. After a family Sunday roast, I would go to my room and start writing. At that stage, I was writing about my experiences in South Africa. I would write and write and write and I wouldn't notice the time go by. One Sunday, all I remember is looking at my clock and seeing that it was 9pm and I had no idea where the day had gone. I had been writing for about seven hours and loving every second of it.

I've tried to fit myself into little boxes where I think my passions should belong. As a physio, I should love listening to people's problems, I should love fixing them, I should be a problem solver. But honestly, more often than not, I struggle with those things. They don't, in any way, come naturally and they definitely don't make me come alive. I wish they did. It would make my job so much more enjoyable if they did. And for so many people, those things are the things that make them come alive. But the box they're so comfortable in is one I cannot squeeze myself into.

Especially lately, I've seen that I actually love to learn and I love to use my writing in that. If there is something I am passionate about, I can easily sit down and write an essay or an article about it.

I've been filling out application forms for universities over the last week (more details to come on that!) and that involves writing personal statements about why I want to study this course. It involves writing essays about current issues. It involves writing research questions. And I've actually been loving it! It makes me dream, it makes me see possibilities, it makes me see ways that I can make a difference. It makes me see that I don't have to try to fit myself into someone else's box - there is one designed for me.

And honestly, I think I am going to be of far more use to the world doing that than I am as a physio, because there is passion behind it, there is a desire to make a difference, there are dreams of changing the world.

But that's me. I think the world needs me to learn, to research, to write. What does the world need you to do? Maybe it needs you to sing. Maybe it needs you to travel. Maybe to take photos. Maybe to play football. Maybe to make new friends. Maybe to make videos with balls of yarn.

What makes you come alive?

DO THAT!

That is what the world needs.