Saying No at All the Wrong Times
The Jonah Complex is what Abraham Maslow calls the business of turning down our most profound callings:
“The evasion of one’s own growth,
the setting of low levels of aspiration,
the fear of doing what one is capable of doing,
voluntary self-crippling,
pseudo-stupidity,
mock humility.”
Personal Confessions: My Own Whale Tale
Ten or so years into freelance writing–finally reasonably well-established– I got an inconvenient urge toward the ministry. I resisted. (I still think I was right to do so)
Then a few years later came the more compelling need to write a story about a minister who hears the voice of God and would prefer not to. I said to myself: is this what I want to do? And then I said to myself: if I turn this one down, the next one is likely to be even worse: opera singing or some such. So I wrote my first novel Revelation.
No regrets. But I also know for sure that some callings keep coming back, one way or another. Might as well figure out the best way to say yes.
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Categories: career strategy, God, Maslow