What an Easter Egg Hunt can teach you about finding happiness and success through your work

Yesterday my daughter participated in an Easter egg hunt – actually it was more like an “Easter egg gathering” event.  The eggs were “hidden” in an open corporate cemented courtyard that was covered with astro turf and plastic eggs were spread out in plain site for toddlers.  For elementary school-aged children (like my daughter), they were it “hidden in plain site” in tree beds that were spaced out among the courtyard.  My point is the thrill came from the amount of eggs to be gathered much more so than the allure of finding what was “hidden”.  It sparked a thought in me that this is so representative of what our future workforce is growing up in – follow me here for a minute…

I imagined that the “eggs” where like talents and the kids were tasked with an ability to acquire as many of them as they could in a competition against other kids vs finding “eggs” (talents), that they were motivated to acquire for their own unique reasons – with the confidence that there was more than enough to go around for everyone.

So, is this where life is headed for this generation?  A race for acquiring as many “talents” as you can – more than you will ever use or enjoy (which BTW – aren’t unused talents the same as no talents at all?)- which only smothers the innate human flame for discovering what’s uniquely appealing and rewarding to you and therefore sparks a contentedness for not knowing what your talents are – and therefore not knowing what you want to do to serve others in this world.  Will this translate into a workforce that has an even more limited chance of feeling happy and experiencing true success?

I don’t mean to diss Egg “hunts” – it was fabulous fun to see my daughter’s face light up while running from one pile of obviously hidden eggs to another – it was fun for me because the opportunity brought out my daughter’s love of conquering a task, her hardcore work ethic, and her sweet heart which considered leaving eggs for other kids when her bag was 1/2 full.  All of those qualities are clues to talents within her that could be valued by and expressed through many different career paths.

What an Easter Egg Hunt can teach you about finding happiness and success through your work is that like an egg “hunt” morphed into an egg “gathering” event that is unwittingly designed to promote conformity and success measured by material acquisition as a source for fulfillment, we must not lose sight of our essential obligation to ourselves and to others to “hunt” for – to discover – what makes us unique and share that with others – especially through our work.  I have seen more than my share of clients who initially are consumed by how much a job pays vs. how it enables them to express and share their discovered talents and feel validation and fulfillment – show up to work with a whole lot of that on your shoulder and you won’t have to worry about money and rewards for too long!

Check out this less than 3 minute video (which is easy to watch because of the beautiful animation – if you can get past that its a bunch of cats and yarn – sorry cat lovers but as a dog lover it was a bit much for me), which beautifully reinforces this point.

Ken Robinson on Flourishing 

Every time we choose in favor of conformity (to do what we think those who love us will approve of, or to win favor from teachers, employers, etc.) or of settling only for what we easily find on the astro-turf of life, over discovering and honoring our hidden passions/values, we move ourselves further and further away from feeling as happy and fulfilled and being as successful as we could be.

Having confidence in what you can do to bring value to those you are most passionate about serving is the path to feeling happy with your work and successful.

Discover your hidden values and talents today with indigoforce!  Get tips, tools and strategies to start living in alignment with what gives you the greatest sense of fulfillment.

Live your life calling – be destined for success!

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