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Career and Meaning



If your job is your passion, there is no better meaning you can discover in your life. If your job is something you love doing, life is as breezy as a delightful song.
For many people, work is a burden from which they need to relax in the evenings with some leisurely activities. Weekend pastimes and annual holiday trips are required for such people to recharge the batteries of their lives. Leisure, hobbies and holidays are all good and required too even for people whose career is their passion. But if such activities are necessitated by the stress of your regular job, then your career cannot offer you the meaning of your life.
We live in a world which cannot offer everyone the jobs of their dreams or a profession that suits their genes. We are forced to take up certain jobs out of the sheer necessity of a regular income. However, we can convert that job into something we enjoy doing. Otherwise, life can be a misery; if not for ourselves, for our clients or whoever we are supposed to be serving.   
Let us take an example out of the thousands of people who needed no other meaning in their life than their career.
Leonardo da Vinci
Image source

Leonardo da Vinci was a son of a wealthy man, Ser Piero da Vinci. But since he was born out of wedlock, he was barred from attending the university or practising any noble profession. His destiny conspired against him right from his birth. He was allowed to grow up in his father’s house, however.
After a little schooling, Leonardo was left to himself. Not knowing what to do with his time, little Leonardo wandered in the wildernesses of the da Vinci estate. The wild animals, birds, flowers and waterfalls fascinated him. He started sketching those beautiful scenes on paper pilfered from his father’s office.  Paper was quite an expensive thing in those days.
His artistic sense and skills were soon noticed by his father. Thus he became an apprentice at the Florentine artist Andrea del Verrocchio’s studio. Leonardo could not complete his assignments there just because he refused to imitate his master. Apprentices were expected to learn by imitating their masters meticulously in those days. Leonardo followed his own instincts and tastes. He created, not imitated.
He created with perfection and so even his master could not but recognise the merit of his talent. When Leonardo was asked to create an angel in a biblical scene which Verrocchio was working on, the young artist experimented with colours until he got a new blend that exuded a radiance that befitted angels. Before drawing the angel, Leonardo spent hours in the local church until he got the right model for the angel. In order to give wings to the angel, Leonardo purchased several birds and studied their wings. The plants that surrounded the angel in the picture came from Leonardo’s observations in his father’s estate during his protracted childhood. Until then, there was a clear tradition about the plants that artists drew around angels. Leonardo changed that tradition. Geniuses don’t follow traditions blindly. They can’t.
The angel was only a small part of a large scene that the master was creating. That didn’t deter the young apprentice from giving his best to the scene. Perfection comes naturally to geniuses. Perfection is part of the genius’s passion.
In 1481, when the Pope asked Lorenzo de Medici to recommend the best artists to decorate the Sistine Chapel, Leonardo was ignored just because Lorenzo despised people who could not read Latin and had no education. It was a bitter experience for Leonardo. But he did not let despair get the better of him.
Leonardo left for Milan where he soon established himself as more than an artist. He pursued all the things that fascinated him: architecture, military engineering, hydraulics, anatomy, sculpture, music, literature, mathematics, astronomy, palaeontology and cartography. The rest is history. He became an unparalleled artist, sculptor, architect and engineer.
For Leonardo da Vinci, his career was his life. The job he did was the meaning of life for him. He loved what he did; he did what he loved. What else can bring bliss to one’s life?
 
Mona Lisa by Da Vinci
I am taking my blog to the next level with Blogchatter’s #MyFriendAlexa

This post is the 3rd in a series on Meaning of Life.
4th will be: Science and Meaning

Comments

  1. For me also Job means to do something which I love to do and can be satisfied with my work!!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Great. What more do you want? A job of your liking is the best one can get in this life.

      Delete
    2. First of all my compliments. I couldn't stop myself after I read the first post. Kept moving back and forth. Managed to read the four Alexa entries and superb...I loved what you wrote. Mostly because maybe I'm mostly searching for siMilar answers. Maybe. Your posts made my day!

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  2. Thanks for sharing nice information with us. i like your post and all you share with us is uptodate and quite informative, i would like to bookmark the page so i can come here again to read you, as you have done a wonderful job jaipur city tour by car

    ReplyDelete
  3. When your passion becomes your job and you get to live it everyday, its a blessing.

    ReplyDelete
  4. THis is a really interesting read. I am sharing this with a few friends who could do with this advice. #myepicareads #MyFriendAlexa

    ReplyDelete
  5. There's nothing more satisfying than turning your passion to your profession.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Lovely post! I also love writing and it is not a chore to keep writing professionally too!! :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. All the best to your writing. I'm going to visit your blog.

      Delete
  7. When passion becomes profession it can create wonders, as it becomes satisfying, fulfilling and gives peace to mind & soul. nice post.
    for me my blog is my ikigai and my passion too.
    #PraGunReads #MyFriendAlexa #Blogchatter

    ReplyDelete
  8. I love my current job which involves doing household chores, learning new things online via E-courses, juggling between home and blog. I love what I do and that is the beauty of blogging. Well written and super informative post :)
    #MyFriendAlexa #vigorousreads

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Glad you reached here, Varsha. If you enjoy doing what you're doing, life becomes a smooth sail.

      Delete
  9. Lovely post! My profession isn't my passion, but it does give me the time to pursue it, which is also a rarity these days. For now, I am happy with that.

    Cheers!
    Modern Gypsy - https://moderngypsy.in

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks for dropping in, in spite of your hectic schedule.

      Delete
  10. It is a fact that turn your passion into profession and live a happy life however very few are able to cope up with it. Financial constraints, responsibility of families are just a few that holds back indians from practicing their passion. Many do it as a part time or wait for their retirement. Da Vinci is one of my favourite artists and a Monalisa lightens up my living room every single day.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Glad to come across a Da Vinci fan.

      It's perhaps hard to convert certain professions into passion. Such people will have to find alternatives.

      Delete
  11. I agree that if you love what you do or you are making your passion, your profession then life goes like a smooth breeze. I am not a davinci fan so can't comment on that.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. You don't have to be a da Vinci fan to understand his passion.

      Delete
  12. Career has different meaning to different people. Some work for money some work for prestige and some for the combination

    ReplyDelete
  13. When you have a career grown from your passion it is a blessing. Like Jack Ma had recently shared his philosophy of 996, they would enjoy that. But most of us don't have a job and passion aligned.

    ReplyDelete
  14. Life is definitely sorted when you have your passion as your work.

    ReplyDelete
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