To Be a Dark Horse – The Mindful Librarian

I’m a reader.  I perused to extend my perspective, to open myself to groundbreaking thoughts and philosophies, and to partake in the encounters of others who have traveled before me.  to put it plainly, I read to grow.  Whether it is fiction or verifiable, I set out to find the real story to see the intentions, get familiar with the exercises, and expand my point of view to thus, better get myself and my place in this world.

On occasion, what you may allude to as “Possibility” (or what I accept to be Serendipity) throws a book into my lap that moves my point of view so extraordinarily that the very establishment I have flawlessly settled myself upon in this world breaks and parts as though by quake. I’m thrown and compelled to discover new balance.

This has just occurred for me a couple of times and it had to do with the substance of the perusing, yet in addition the circumstance in my life.  The me of today will “hear” an alternate message through the pages of a book than the me of five years prior.

The me of today, amidst a worldwide pandemic which has constrained me inside both in a real sense and metaphorically, has invested a decent piece of energy posing the large inquiries: Am I on my actual path?  Am I happy?  Could I be bound for something different?

Enter Dark Horse: Achieving Success Through the Pursuit of Fulfillment, by Todd Rose and Ogi Ogas.  Although the book is from one viewpoint an evaluate of our general public’s “cutout shape for progress,” it welcomes the peruser to participate in some genuine self-reflection.  (Just the greeting I was prepared for!)

As indicated by Rose and Ogas, our general public has been stuck in what they allude to as the “Period of Standardization” in which individuals travel through a similar fundamental framework (school, school, temporary position, work, advancement, retirement).  In this framework, achievement is characterized as your capacity to be, “equivalent to every other person, just better.”  The mantra we have all heard previously, “Work harder,”  has become our main thrust and things like cash, renown, and force are at the top rungs of the stepping stools we have been adapted to climb.

Inside this framework individuals may wind up discontent whether or not or not they have “made it.”  I know the feeling.  It resembles having a psychological and enthusiastic tingle that you can’t scratch since you don’t have the foggiest idea about the source.  The creators of Dark Horse predict the development of an “Time of Personalization.”

Rather than being inspired by rivalry, or to continue on through establishments’ prior stepping stools of progress, individuals can accomplish an alternate kind of “achievement,” one that fulfills and rejuvenates further significance and reason and addresses every individual’s valid self.  In an “Period of Personalization,” society in general would flourish as individuals tackle uniqueness through the quest for satisfaction.

Satisfaction…

How is this accomplished?  How does this truly contrast from the general public we live in?  Don’t we advance singularity already?  Aren’t there enough decisions and openings out there?

To address these inquiries Rose and Ogas affirm that we should first “forget” what we have been educated and burrow further to recognize what truly makes us tick; the exercises that bring us into a stream express, the spots and spaces in which we flourish, the articles, sensations, and thoughts which normally draw our attention.  The writers of Dark Horse have a name for these:

Miniature intentions

What are mine?  After some contemplation and journaling, I’ve gone to certain revelations about my most genuine self.  I’ll share them here:

I love aesthetics.  I should be in spaces that are perfect, meager yet comfortable, and “pretty.”  I need admittance to normal light.  (I whither in current stylistic layout, fluorescent lighting, mess, and spaces where innovation jumble the energy of the space – think PC labs or office work areas.)

I need innovative outlets that empower me to be expressive, as unmistakable artworks, composing, or in any event, making presentations.  (I am handily disappointed and worn out when fixing broken things, adjusting spending plans, or investigating for other people.)

I need actual work and capacity best whenever I have the chance to get up and move, thus my serious enthusiasm for strolling and hiking.  (Long hours at a work area is poisonous for me all around.)

I flourish in friendly conditions with enthusiastic collaborations, yet significantly lean toward working “next to each other” rather than “face-to-face.”  (This was a major disclosure for me!  I need fellowship and love the sharing and ricocheting off of thoughts with others, yet favor when my work is my own.  I don’t prefer to be in a position where my prosperity is needy upon the exhibition of others… )

Dull Horse

Presently we should return to the title of our book, Dark Horse: Achieving Success Through the Pursuit of Fulfillment.  How did the writers arrive at these resolutions with respect to progress through satisfaction, singularity, and an Age of Personalization?  Through the contextual investigations of various “dim ponies,” or individuals who made wonderful progress in fields where nobody saw them coming, either in light of the fact that they began their lives on an altogether unique track or on the grounds that they totally avoided society’s stepping stool of achievement (formal tutoring, entry level position, and so forth)

Models investigated in the book incorporate an advertising partner turned famous flower vendor, a product organizer for Apple PCs turned horticulturist, political facilitator and chief at the level of the White House turned proficient coordinator, secondary school dropout turned stargazer, effective finance manager turned tailor.  Each of these individuals prevailing in their new fields, yet by utilizing individual satisfaction as a fundamental helper, far outperformed others in their new fields.

Presently in spite of the fact that it absolutely wouldn’t be judicious to stopped your normal everyday employment without an astute strategy and sizable wellbeing net, think briefly about your own degree of individual fulfillment.  Might there be another way for you to pursue?  Perhaps one that doesn’t exist yet… yet could be cut out by you as you go?

Simply recollect, a “dull pony” is a triumph story.  Before dim ponies set out through unchartered domain with cleavers in hands, they peer cautiously through the brush to guarantee they don’t out of nowhere arise at a precipice’s end.

The Pursuit of Happiness

According to Rose and Ogas’ broad investigation, dull ponies share one thing in like manner – profound (deeeep) feeling of individual fulfillment, reason, and happiness.  Now for an exercise in derivation (another energy of mine, incidentally).

“Joy” is gotten from the root “hap” which signifies “something befitting a specific occasion or situation” (think about the words luck, indiscriminate, setback, or hapless).  When our establishing fathers considered as a real part of our three unalienable rights, the privilege to “the quest for joy,” it was not proposed to mean gladness or joy.  according to antiquarian Jack D. Warren, “an individual accomplished joy when his condition fit his character, gifts and capacities.”