How often do you ask the “only I” question?
“If you didn’t go work on Wall Street, would someone happily take your place? Probably. But what about moving back to your hometown and helping revive it? Maybe only you can do that. Plenty of other people can write clickbait, but only you can speak your truth.
The wise, whether they’re Epictetus or Peter Thiel, know the real race is between mimicry and uniqueness, and most of all: purpose. When setting out on some new endeavor — building a business, producing a creative project — the question has to be: Is this something ONLY I can do?”
– Ryan Holliday 13 Questions that will change your life
I’m a big Ryan Holliday fan. His book “The Obstacle is the Way” is fascinating reading. It actually has many direct applications that apply to me as far as work, because in the emergency room, there are many obstacles.
The thing that really struck me here was the idea of the “ONLY I” proposition. That is a unique idea to me because we rarely think that whatever we are working on is an “Only I” activity. We just go about whatever the task is and we really don’t ask ourselves the why question much. From personal experience, I know that I never ask “Is this somethat that “Only I” can accomplish?
Our Unique Assignment
Looking at the books that I am working on at this moment, there are examples and quotes and scenarios there that came from situations, research and study, and life experiences that I myself went through. Is it possible that “Only I” could write a book about passion that illustrates certain points and emphasizes certain ideas? I would argue that the answer to that is an emphatic YES. I also strongly believe that there are tasks or assignments that “only you” can do. Not only that, that assignment was given only to you. These assignments are linked to spiritual growth.
This idea is exactly consistent with the what I have talked about in “Brave the Wave” and is also being discussed in my second book. When we view our tasks and our purpose and our passion, these are all “ONLY I” ideas. Your passion is unique to you. Your purpose is unique to you. Most importantly, your eternity is unique to you.
When you have a Christian worldview and can see things from God’s perspective, you realize that you are special and unique and you have an assigned task to complete. In my second book on passion, I talk about how NDEs or near death experiences help us to understand that we each have an assignment to complete in the power of the gifts and talents that we were born with.
Everyone has unique gifts and talents. Everyone. Therefore, we are responsible to discover and develop those talents and use the power that is granted to us through those gifts to fulfill our purpose.
Here is an excerpt from Brave the Wave where I describe what Jesus told Howard Storm in his NDE,
“The world is like God’s garden. God made you and everyone else to bloom in that garden. And to be beautiful. And God made every one of you unique and special to be beautiful in your own way.”
You have a purpose to fulfill and complete that is an “Only I” task. It is critical to your existence. It is absolutely crucial to your sense of fulfillment, joy and the realization of your authentic self. Is there something out there that ONLY YOU can do? I bet there is.