Occupying Your Personal Niche

Today, I’m scheduled to enjoy my monthly lunch with one of my sons.  As I shared a few weeks ago, at a recent lunch, he noted that if we see each other once a month for the next eight or ten years, that will only be about 100 more visits in my lifetime.

Ouch!  That idea woke me up. Am I doing everything I can to make every moment count?

There are many aspects of life that we take for granted.  For me those include good health, the abundance of healthy food and safe drinking water and all the other necessities for living well that I am lucky to have access to. I am secure in my thinking that my comfortable life will continue forever.  Well, if not forever then at least for a long time.

While it’s easy for me to say, “nothing will last forever,” it’s another matter entirely for me to believe that everything I know will end. Because that is much sooner than I would like.

We can respond to life’s limitations by fighting against them – but ultimately, we will lose.  Or we can keep in mind that our time on earth is limited, and our job is to find our personal niche and occupy it with as much joy and satisfaction as we can muster out of every moment.

I have six biological children, whose occupations include doctor, lawyer, and college professor, yoga instructor, editor and therapist.  I’ve been an accountant, attorney, and for many years a real estate investor.  When I was a teenager, I wanted to be a writer, and as an adult I published five books and founded a prestigious literary journal. While lately, the only writing I’ve been doing regularly is this blog, for more than ten years, and I’ve never missed a week.

I invite you to consider your niche in life.  Have you found it?  Do you occupy it most of the time?  Does it bring you happiness and satisfaction? My younger brother, who died way too young at the age of 60, made a career out of being a kid.  I think he preferred the company of seven-year-olds to the company of adults.  “Kids have more fun,” he once told me.

If you have found your niche, I applaud you.  If you still have a way to go, I encourage you to keep looking, because finding your personal niche is worth —

Everything.

Alan