In 2012, I read the Way of the Peaceful Warrior. I still think about its lessons, often daily, and this week, one passage in particular appeared during quiet moments between football and cranberry-sauce-covered gluttony.
First though, some context. Dan, the book’s protagonist (and author), is successful. At Cal Berkley in the 60s, he’s an NCAA champion gymnast. He scores coeds. He keeps a high GPA. But… he’s miserable. Despite his heap of accomplishments, he can’t shake the understanding that he’s missing something, something vital.
One evening past midnight, he can’t sleep, so he ambles into a nearby gas station for a soda. There, he meets an attendant named Socrates. This man shows him—beginning that night, then over years of mentorship—precisely what he’s missing: commitment to finding out who he really is.
After graduating from college, Dan feels close to the right path for himself. He finally owns a sense of what he wants—a meaningful life—but he can’t see his next step. So, he asks his mentor for advice.
“It doesn’t matter what you do,” Socrates tells him. “Only how well you do it.”
While working on furniture, I am working from the person I was while I was medicine. And when I do whatever it is in the future that I’m supposed to do, I’ll be the person I am today while working on furniture.
Whether we we love or hate our job, our actions matter. If we own the quality of our work, we’ll own a better understanding of our experience, which is all we really need to grasp what to do next.
To livin’ a life we love,
Ryan Fightmaster, MD
