RichardHarlos.com

I once saw a beautifully decorative jar filled with seeds. I asked the jar’s owner what kind of seeds they were and she replied, “Those are Coast Redwood seeds. Coast Redwoods are among the tallest trees in the world!”

After some small talk we parted ways but the image of her seed-filled jar lingered in my mind’s eye. It certainly was a beautiful decoration for display, and the novelty that those weren’t just any seeds, but seeds from the tallest trees in the world, kept nagging me. After some deliberate thinking, I realized that I was bothered by a larger idea: the difference between the appearance of those seeds locked away for decoration and the potential in those seeds to produce a magnificent phenomenon.

Although there are any number of reasons why a person might desire such a unique and attractive decoration, the real value in those seeds is in their potential to become something greater than mere decoration. By confining those seeds within that jar, their innate potential to become the worlds tallest trees was lost.

Just as there are many different kinds of trees in the world, each with their own unique properties and appearances, so it is with human beings:

I believe that when people feel stuck in an occupation or profession that doesn’t recognize or utilize their innate abilities and interests, these people are less likely to experience a genuine sense of satisfaction in their work, perhaps even in their lives. And while their presence in that field or factory or office building may provide some decorative value, their innate potential lies dormant like those seeds in the glass jar.

On the other hand, when a person’s innate abilities and interests are necessary to their work, I believe that person is much more likely to feel an inner-pride in what they’re doing and, by extension, in who they are as a person. Happy people are more reliable, loyal, and productive workers precisely because their work feels less like thankless toil and more like an act of becoming (think Maslow’s hierarchy and self-actualization).

To become what we were born to become is perhaps life’s greatest truth to be recognized, and its greatest reward to be obtained.