We all have strengths that urge us most strongly to do things in the world that demand those strengths and allow those strengths to come to the fore. These constitute our goals and our dreams.
The path towards a goal is often neither smooth nor direct.
There are diversions along the way. We have to travel on strange roads and go to out-of-the-way places.
Sometimes this means taking a volunteer job before you can get the paying job you want. Sometimes it means doing things you don’t at all enjoy doing. It can mean many things.
Traveling this diversionary path can make us feel we are lost. Of course we’re going to feel lost. We’re not “at home.” Our greatest strengths are ignored and our weaknesses are highlighted instead. Agreeing to take this path requires a great degree of humility and a high degree of open-ness to learning new things.
In the process of learning, we expand our capabilities and develop new strengths, in addition to the ones we shine in. Looking back, it turns out that to get to our goal we needed to learn something else first, and that the diversion actually served our ultimate goal.
The question then becomes: How can I make sure that not one single experience goes to waste? How can I ensure that I learn whatever lessons I need to learn from the experience for the future? What can I gather up from this diversion in the road, this out-of-the-way place, and take with me back to my path?
At the same time, it is still important to do something, somehow even when we’re not on “our path” that does emphasize what we are best at. This gives us a taste of our goal even if we’re not there yet. It reminds us of the realness of our dream and the realness of who we are.