I was just re-reading Tools Of Titans: The Tactics, Routines, and Habits of Billionaires, Icons, and World-Class Performers and came across the following quote:
“Are you doing what you’re uniquely capable of, what you feel placed on Earth to do? Can you be replaced?
Life is short. Put another way: a long life is far from guaranteed. Nearly everyone dies before they are ready.
I was tired of being interchangeable.
Are you squandering your unique abilities? Or the chance to find them in the first place?”
-Tim Ferriss
An insight for my police, fire, EMS, and military friends…
The very nature of your jobs require that you are both replaceable and interchangeable. If you died today, your employer would plug another skin suit into your role and the organization would carry on without a second’s interruption. Do you still think you are important to your employer?
Do you really want to devote all your life’s energy to a career where you are replaceable? Not me. I did my job, but didn’t develop an unhealthy emotional attachment to an occupation that had absolutely zero reciprocal devotion.
The best use of your life energy is to focus on the arenas where you are not interchangeable.