Last week was Read Across America week, and I volunteered to read to my daughter’s 5th grade class. The book I read was #35 from The Puppy Place series. It was about a little boy, Charles, and a dog named Cooper.
While rehearsing for a play, Charles meets Cooper, a corgi with a whole lot of personality. Charles only feels comfortable onstage with Cooper there with him, and Cooper helps him get over stage fright and not wanting to be in the play. If you’re not familiar with this children’s book series by author, Ellen Miles, then you should know they are very uplifting because every puppy finds a good home. My daughter, Jarah, and I share a love for dogs and these stories.
I genuinely enjoy volunteering my time for my daughter, her teacher and her classmates because I’ve learned that happiness with myself and my life is a function of my investment in building relationships with others. I do it without any expectation of reciprocity, yet I feel like I get back more than what I give. In fact, this is a law of nature. For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.
This is one example of having a mindset that takes control of my direction in life, a mindset where you embed meaning in the work you do and build a craft that brings joy to you and others. I call this mindset and skill lifecrafting. With lifecrafting, there are no distinct boundaries between family, work and community because they are all interrelated and woven together. There is a common thread that weaves them all together. Lifecrafting is about building your craft and applying it to many different situations moment to moment, day after day, year after year. It’s about doing work that matters and feeling fulfilled and successful.
For me, this mindset is rooted in scripture:
- 1 John 2:15 says, “Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, love for the Father is not in them.“
- John 3:16 says, “God so loved the world …”
“The world” is used in two different contexts in these versus. The first verse refers to the world’s value system. The second verse refers to the world’s people. We’re asked to love people, but hate the value system. The problem is, we often get it reversed. We love the value system and hate the people.
With lifecrafting, you’re focused on loving people, no matter what choices they make. You love without strings attached, without conditions. You invest yourself in them and have a spirit saturated in goodwill for them. Your endgame is building better relationships. The magic by doing this is you’ll ultimately discover your Mission on earth, and block by block, you’ll build your craft and do work that really matters.
I have the roadmap. I have a compass. I have a mentor and can help you master lifecrafting. You don’t have to figure out the steps of your journey alone.
MindWolves 