PEAK, 2nd Edition

Chapter SixCreating Inspiration

In the end, it is impossible to have a great life unless it is a meaningful life. And it is very difficult to have a meaningful life without meaningful work. Perhaps, then you might gain that rare tranquility that comes from knowing that you've had a hand in creating something of intrinsic excellence that makes a contribution. Indeed, you might even gain that deepest of all satisfactions: knowing that your short time here on this earth has been well spent, and that it mattered.

Jim Collins, Good to Great¹

Are you fortunate enough to have found your calling? Was there a moment that spoke to you, saying, “Wake up, this is why you're here on Earth!”? I found my calling by observing someone else live out hers.

I spent a few months of college studying in the English countryside. During one particular break from school, I traveled over to Germany and spent a few days hitchhiking. While in the Black Forest region, I contracted a digestive bug that hit me like a ton of bricks. Fortunately, I flagged down a driver (not easy on the autobahn) who took me to the nearest town and deposited me into a three-room bed-and-breakfast down a secluded alleyway. I knew absolutely no German. Maria, the innkeeper, knew very little English, but she easily recognized my international signal of distress: cold sweats and a need to rush to the nearest bathroom.

Without ...