In early August something great came into my life – a puppy named Toby. Cara and I went to the dog breeder’s house in Marysville to check out their litter of golden retrievers (we both have always wanted one). There were three or four little fuzz-balls, but one was a little different from the rest and crawled out to us. That was it – he was coming home with us. Toby’s grown from the tiny guy that fit in the palm of your hand, into a 40+ pound dog in just a few short months. Raising a dog is a lot of work: the feeding, the walking, the bathing, the bathroom trips. Oh, the bathroom trips! Now when we come back inside from heading out to the rain to make sure Toby pees and poos in the grass and not on the floor, Cara invariably asks, “Was he a good boy?” And I reply, “Yup, he did his thing.”
We all have “our thing”. Cara’s thing is yoga and reading. Ryan’s thing is collecting and dressing nice. Stanislav’s thing is climbing and cigars. Apparently, Toby’s thing is “leaving his mark on the world”… in his own way. Our special thing is what defines us. It’s not everything we are, but it is a big part of our lives. It’s something that, internally, is something to be passionate about, and externally, something that makes us interesting. Take for example my boss, the head of the Amazon Appstore – Aaron Rubenson. He’s incredibly smart, well spoken; he’s a hard worker and demands the same from the team. Oh hey, by the way, he’s also a concert opera singer. And he’s learning how to sail. I’m sure as he talks with “the higher-ups” or people from other companies, he stands out with interesting personal experiences from “his thing”. After all, we work to live, not live to work. Your thing shouldn’t be artificial. If it’s cool, but you’re not into it – don’t force it. When you take time for yourself and your hobbies, you should be excited about it and you should feel like you derive some satisfaction from it. As you give time to yourself to do “your thing”, you will have a wealth of great experiences to look back on and share with others.
Be interesting my friends; go find what you are passionate about.
