“There is a difference between work you have to do and work you cannot not do.
When you find your purpose and answer your calling, the gravitational pull towards the work you were born to do is too strong to control.
You couldn’t not do it, if you tried.”
-Ray Zingler on X
I woke up at 3am this morning.
2:57am to be exact. Wide ass awake.
This isn’t terribly surprising since I bedded down around 10pm after a great night relaxing with my family in the living room, watching my son’s favorite, ‘Mr. Beast’ (talk about a go-getter, damn!) gameshow.
5ish hours of solid, uninterrupted sleep for a guy whose mind has ran like a Thoroughbred in Louisville, Kentucky on the first Saturday in May since I started my first “real” entrepreneurial journey at 18, is a luxury.
I try to get (a lot) more, and I’ve gotten better at it, but I’ve also learned to operate on a hell of a lot less.
When I got up, I checked my messages, DM’s, etc. and responded to one of the DM’s, knowing surely this conversation wouldn’t continue until later in the day.
Seconds later, I got a response.
“What the hell are you doing up at this hour?”
While he and I were likely up for different reasons (he’s a senior in college who likely hadn’t gone to bed yet) I simply told him this:
“There is work you have to do and there is work that you cannot not do.”
When you find your purpose and answer your calling the gravitational pull towards the work you were born to do is too strong to control.
I couldn’t not do it, if I tried.
As we continued our brief conversation (a great, and I mean GREAT kid) I told him that it was my hope that one day he found and answered his calling.
The older I’ve gotten the more I’ve tried to simplify my life.
I don’t do a whole lot.
“Work, Family, Scene, you can only pick two”, says Austin Kleon.
And I’ve with an abundance of appreciation and gratitude, picked family & work.
While I don’t have this whole life thing close to fully figured out, I have found that fulfillment is simple:
Spend intentional time with those you love.
And do the work you’re supposed to do.
And the kicker is to never not do it.
“The meaning of life is to find your gift. The purpose of life is to give it away.” -Picasso
If it impacts one, your effort is not in vain