What Do You Do?
I have considered the answer that is generally given to this question, and I think it is bit reflective of the confusion that about 97% of people have about identity, passion and purpose in virtually all population groups.
When a person is asked, ‘What do you do/are you doing?’ the answer mostly starts with ‘I Am’, intending thereby to answer ‘What I Do’ by ‘Who I Am’. Take a moment and try to answer the question, too.
What do you do? What is your work?
Now, if you started with, ‘I am…’ that is you answering what you believe is your identity in a certain respect, not what you do.
You can do a thing without being the person who does it. Plenty people play football everyday on the streets; but they are not footballers. They DO it but BE not it. Well, this is not to say what you do or not do but to help you clarify between your purpose and identity.
Who Am I? is the question that takes on the answer, ‘I Am’… ‘What Do I Do’ is the question that takes on the answer, ‘I Do…’ Your identity is who you are; that is what you identify yourself as, who you believe yourself to be.
The primary answer to ‘Who Am I?’ is ‘I AM’. You are Spirit, Energy, Formless Consciousness within you. Then, WHAT you conceptualise that formless consciousness into is MEANT TO BE your passion. ‘I Am “a Teacher”’ indicates that you believe your passion to be ‘Teaching’. That is what is supposed to run in your veins.
On the other hand, What you do is about your purpose and vision. When you answer what you do, it is supposed to be the doing of something, some activity that is shaping reality in a certain way. Two people can identify as a teacher with different visions for the same identity. A teacher may be doing ‘teaching people to understand how photography works’, another teacher is ‘teaching people to understand how they can achieve their life’s goals’. Their purpose is teaching but in different visions. (Fundamentally, we all have the same purpose: helping others; but we execute it differently in our vision.) This is the exact way to answer what you do.
Now, when you specialise what you do to a limited range of time, it might happen to change from time to time within a range of amplifying activities. That is, when what you do is to answer vision within a short period, it is about goals then; and goals change from one time to another. A teacher (who they are) of photography (vision) may be teaching in Harvard last year (goal) but in his/her founded institute this year (goal).
A danger therefore of answering what you do with who you are is that it confuses your vision and goals with your identity and passion. It is easier to change what you do without changing who you are (in fact, to become more of who you are) when the question, ‘What do I do’ is properly attended to. With that, you can fundamentally find out if you are happy with what you are doing. If you are not, you must be doing something either out of your passion or not on purpose. Now, to answer properly, ‘Who am I’, helps you to align back to ‘What I truly want to be doing’.
There is a third question, ‘What Have I?’ It is not of primary concern here. But I have mentioned it for you to know it is a question, too. What Have I is a question of dreams. This is the drive for expansion. Dissatisfaction (not unhappiness) with what you have is what causes you to step out of the comfort zone and seek to become more in other for you to do more. This is why it is important to get the three questions in proper perspectives. For you cannot become more of what you are unaware of. When you get the questions in their right perspectives, you can become more of who you are, leading you to change what you do so that you can have what greater, nobler, higher things you desire to have.
I hope you receive a firm lesson for yourself out of this.
Inspired to write this following Bob Proctor’s 5 Days of Purpose and Profit.
This is an extension of the OVERFLOW OF ENGRAFT, which started in October 2020. This extension, 365 Days of ENGRAFT, is one of the personal development release for ENGRAFT SOCIETY, designed to bring every person to the awareness of Success and Happiness in their lives. I invite you to join ENGRAFT SOCIETY today. Get a copy of ENGRAFT for our free invitation to ENGRAFT SOCIETY, become a part of our personal and team development programs and bring yourself to new levels of success beyond your wildest expectations.
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