Wow again! I continued reading from the pages I last posted. I would like to share this message I just read from the book that fell open while cleaning my shelves today. I wholly understand this message. The book I am referring to is titled, "Love Signs" by Linda Goodman first edition dated 1978. I've had this book for decades and it has just sat on the shelf. It's funny how a haphazard moment can lead to such enlightenment as I've just experienced. I hope you enjoy this story and be inspired by it. FIND YOUR INNER VOICE! I have typed pages 792 and 793 for your enjoyment.
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Most people start out with ambitions for the future, enter a profession or career of their choice, work toward their goal - and eventually, after they've enjoyed a fair amount of time of achievement (and tucked away some cash), they retire, and do as they please. The Archers approach the work ethic in reverse. They like to start out by retiring - or at least, by doing just what they please. If what pleases them is unduly restricted by the demands of employment, they often toss security over their shoulders, shrug - follow the features of their hunches for a while, and figure that, when things get tough, they can always find a different occupation that isn't so confining.
To work at a job you hate more than you love, only to gain financial security, can slowly murder the spirit. The Archer believes a person's work or career should be something he enjoys so much, he would do it without a cent of pay if he had to, because he is so magnetized by its challenge - because he must express himself in this way, or be forever unfulfilled. (An unfulfilled Archer is a sad and empty person, more so than any other.)
It's never those who set out determined to make a lot of money, with financial security as the bottom line goal, who succeed and become wealthy. The greatest fortunes never fail to match the greatest achievements, granted by Lady Luck invariably to those who are so consumed and obsessed by an IDEA, so single-minded about it that they're completely oblivious to the cash remuneration. Their fortunes pile up around them, nearly unnoticed. The Universe smiles on them. because they work with love, not with the apathy of boredom or frustrated resentment. Dr. Land and his obsession with the Polaroid photo-graphic process. Henry and his love affair with his Ford. Tom Edison and the sounds he heard in his head, he desperately had to somehow channel. David Sarnoff... and thousands upon thousands of others.
There are plumbers and electricians who passionately love their work, and couldn't possibly imagine doing anything else. There are chefs who adore to cook, physicians who desperately long to heal, waiters who are happy talking with people, fascinated by the changing streams of the faces of humanity. Yes, there are even people who feel a deep, personal satisfaction in scrubbing floors and washing windows - in cleaning. They're aware of a powerful lifting of the spirits from seeing dirt and untidiness magically change into freshness and shining order.
I know a man who would rather paint houses than be President, truthfully. It exhilarates him in a way he doesn't try to explain to himself - least of all to anyone else. Albert Schweitzer preferred the hardships of steamy jungles to a chrome-plated, modern science lab, while others prefer the chrome-plated, modern science lab to primitive labor in the jungle. Those who punch their factory time clocks with suppressed bitterness and a sense of futility turn out ugly furniture, not fit to pass down to anyone, hardly fit for the original owner, after a few months. But a man who loves his work is a craftsman, creating miracles from wood and other materials that are treasured for centuries.
And so it goes. There was a time when people were more inclined to follow their hearts to their professions, when society made it easier to earn one's daily bread with love. Now all we have are square pegs in round holes, and vice versa, because of the rat race called "success", that turns out, in the end, to be a cruelly false label. Millions ask themselves privately, "Why is success such a failure?" Because it was wrongly defined in the beginning, that's why. By television commercials... and within the glossy ads in magazines. Madison Avenue has a heavy Karma ahead, for sure...
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