Waiting For The Shoulder Tap
To each there comes in their lifetime a special moment when they are figuratively tapped on the shoulder and offered the chance to do a very special thing, unique to them and fitted to their talents.
What a tragedy if that moment finds them unprepared or unqualified for that which could have been their finest hour.
- Winston Churchill
In my first career as a lawyer at a big law firm, I spent hours fantasizing about my shoulder tap moment.”
I’m at a diner for a late lunch. I order French toast with extra powdered sugar. Bulk season, baby. The waitress takes the menu and the bell over the front door, “Ding dings.”
A shadowy figure in a trench coat enters. I glance down at my phone to check my work email and see the figure approaching from the corner of my eye. I hear his boots slide to a stop on the linoleum floor in front of my booth.
He taps me on the shoulder and says, “Mr. Williams?”
"Um…yes, can I help you?" I surprisingly respond.
"Well, yes you can. It’s time for your training to begin."
The fantasy then jumps to me practicing my judo chop in the Himalayas with my shirt off, becoming the CEO of a public company with my shirt on, and retiring beachside as a multi-millionaire with my supermodel wife and 2.5 kids, mostly with my shirt off. That’s the kind of call I was desperate for. Maybe you’ve hoped for something similar.
Well, I have good news and bad news.
The good news is that you aren’t alone in waiting for the shoulder tap moment.
The bad news is that no matter how long you wait for it, you aren’t a long-lost Avenger on the brink of rejoining the squad.
I’d like to present a more realistic expectation for finding your life’s purpose. I will help you remember something we each knew as kids and forgot as adults.
The creation story in Hinduism says that after God created the world, he realized he was the creator and the creation. And the man who uses his power to create becomes a creator within creation. That is our essence.
Now what the hell does that mean?
- Anything that you do is the use of your Creator’s Power. Cleaning the dishes, watching Netflix, playing golf, having sex all of it.
- You don’t feel fulfilled when you are using your Creator’s Power from any other emotion than love.
- The emotions that block love are Fear, Duty, Obligation, and Need.
- To Create using the full power you have you must slowly eliminate all creations that you are creating from Fear, Duty, Obligation and Need in order to really remember what you love.
The shoulder tap is an act of rebellion and an act of obedience. We must rebel against the tyranny of the known, the expected, and the obligations that we all find ourselves held hostage to. And that rebellion is also an act of obedience to our nature, inner law, and the creator within us that is often hidden to us.
The tap on the shoulder comes when you are ready to face the fear of expressing the special thing inside you, it will not show you how to possess a special thing outside of you. The creator’s call changes you from a slave in search of a savior to a creator in the act of creation.
Bets: The Power to Create is the power to say yes.
But you don’t get that power until you learn the power to say no. Say “no” to something this week that you normally agree to do out of fear, obligation, duty, or need. Use that time you just created for yourself to do something that you enjoy doing that has no economic purpose to it.
Don’t turn down Sunday at the in-laws to put in a few more hours at the office. Do something you really like doing or try something new if you have no idea what you really like doing.
I’ve looked in my bank account. I’ve tried to find it in my marriage and home life. And I’ve sold companies the companies I’ve founded when I learned it wasn’t there either.
A man’s purpose is what he must be, not what he can be. And I’m here to help you find your purpose so you can live the rest of your life living on purpose.
