My name is Mike Knowles, and I’m a maker of meaning. My purpose in life is to use my talents and skills in the service of making meaning, inspiration, and fun, while at the same time getting some real satisfaction out of life through work and love. (Thanks to Eric Maisel who, though he knows me not, is nonetheless responsible for my getting clear on that whole purpose thing.)
As you might imagine, I have no “career” in the traditional sense of the word. I have been a writer, sense-maker, and musician for most of my life, and spent a good portion of the first 40-odd years fighting the voices that told me “you can’t do that,” where “that” is making my living in the world as a creator of meaning.
I discovered I damned well CAN do that, and furthermore realized that those who spent time and energy telling me I couldn’t do X lived lives of fear and desperation, at best building a static bubble of apparent safety which they spend all their time and effort maintaining.
That’s not creating. That’s sitting still.
As any physiologist will tell you, sit still long enough and achy ailments will be your constant companion. Move, create, and you’ll know a life few have ever truly experienced.
One last thing: I write and talk about gratitude, determination, and faith a lot. All three are practices. Faith is the certainty you will create the life you envision. Get clear about the sort of life you want, be grateful for it, then start where you are with the raw materials at hand, all the while maintaining the certainty of creating it, and you will achieve it.