How to be an explorer of the world

I love Keri Smith! While creating one's portable life museum, she suggests one should record what one is drawn to. Her books are inspiring and I recommend keeping copies lying about so that when you are stuck, like I was just moments ago in trying to think of a title for this blog post, you can get unstuck.

She is also interesting to me because she has made her life's work into her work and she's made it into a career and she is making money. Some people really pull that off. And then the rest of us wonder if we should set up a table at the farmers market and sell the little crocheted doll outfits we sit around at night making endlessly.

If you were raised like I was, there is the assumption that you would go to college and that you would do a job that allowed you to follow a passion, do what you love, feel satisfied, and therefore do right by yourself and the world. I ended up in the non-profit world with lots of other people who seem to have also been led by their hearts and their passions. The non-profit world is made up of exhausted people who believe work should be meaningful and satisfying.

But if you love doing something, you will do it whether you get paid or not. I don't get paid to do yoga (at least not now that I'm no longer teaching any classes) but I still do it whenever I can. I have never once been paid to bike or cook, or travel or take pictures. I just do those things because I love doing them and find myself personally motivated. I don't get paid to blog but turns out I like writing. The thought of building a career around these loves seems ridiculous to me at my age (maybe it shouldn't but it does).

Because I'm not particularly GOOD at those things. They don't use my strengths, give me the rewards I want, nor do they inherently provide opportunities for me to contribute to the larger good.

I am an ENFJ. I want to work independently but as a member of a team. I like to make connections between ideas. I see possibilities. I build and sustain relationships. I really like people and am always meeting new people. I have am authentically and genuinely positive and see creative ways to do things. I like variety, I like learning new things, I like taking on projects, and I like to be engaged in several things at once. Because I'm organized, I make a plan, and I get shit done.

I am an explorer of the world. I'm collecting ideas, seeing connections, thinking up what might be if only, and then figuring out how to get there. This is what I am GOOD at and what my life's work is built on.

Three passions driving my work right now:

1. Non-profit fundraising and philanthropy

2. Public space and playground design

3. How rivers and lakes shape a place and the people who live with them

Tom Robbins says "We are in this life to enlarge the soul, liberate the spirit, and light up the brain." I once embroidered that quote into the inside of a green corderoy jacket. I love it.

I'm doing what I am good at doing and finding that it is in fact all connected to what I love.