Living A Purposeful Life: How I Found My “One Thing”
I have never been the type that does just one thing. I love to multitask (yes, I am aware that can be a bad thing), I enjoy exploring new business opportunities and I can't have enough side projects on my hands. But, as much excitement as I felt for a certain thing in the first couple of weeks, the feeling would fade rather quickly, and I would lie in thirst for the next idea I could clinge onto. Writing this now is actually my first outright confession of this fact. Because who wants to admit that they're not getting anything done? As I was going through these phases, frustration would be a common companion, and I would ask myself - Why isn't there anything that I seem to love enough to stick with? Cause that's what was being preached all around (especially in the startup world): do what you love. So what do I love? Working in hotels. Bartending. Being a concierge. Running a startup. Wedding planning. Mystery shopping. Creating marketing campaigns. Advertising. Writing. All of those are things I tried. And NONE stuck with me. Don't get me wrong -- I never hated any of these. But yet they didn't create significant enoug of a hook to keep me attached. So I wondered: was there something wrong with me? Some sort of ADD toward my own favorite thing? What was my favorite thing anyways?
It turns out, the answer lies in my own past.
For as long as I remember, drawing was my favorite activity. I would spend hours and hours scribbling away, and learning from my parents (who were not bad at drawing either) how to design stuff. How to angle stuff; how to create a shadow; how to make it look real. My absolute all time favorite toy (until I turned 14) was Lego. I am not talking about all the complicated vehicles and Star Wars collections; but simple lego bricks, windows, doors, roof tile, trees, flowers. And I would build houses, from very small and simple ones, to the most complex and elaborate palaces around. Concurrently, I started to use design paper to sketch the floorplan of my parents' house, and redesign the interiors of it. I created maybe 5 versions of it; walls moved, rooms extended, complete landscaping around included. And you know what? I would take these drawings and stick them under my pillow, because they were the first and last thing I looked at every day.
In retrospect things are always clear; foreseeing is the tough part.
What amazes me the most is that the answer to the question - What is my one thing? - was always available to me. I turned 29 a couple of months ago. 15 years have passed ever since my parents told me that they couldn't afford the high school for architecture I wanted to attend. I didn't take it badly, I had anticipated it ... and so I went for a high school with a focus on hospitality. And this move opened the world to me. In 15 years I have lived and worked in 10 countries, I have learned to speak 4 foreign languages, I got to know many cultures that help me read the world better, I learned what 5 star service is, I planned and coordinated events, I taught myself marketing, I built relationships and most importantly: I did it all because I knew it would be good for something one day, but without knowing that all these things would one day come together and form the foundation for my real estate business. I believe that our favorite things, toys, passions and activities are a mirror of what we should do in live. If you observe carefully, your child will tell you what they want to be ... without having to say it. When you play with them, watch and pay attention. Find a pattern. Uncover their passions and talents. Encourage and elevate them ... because your role is complement their interests with the appropriate education; then you are setting your child up for a purposeful future.