• Skip to main content
  • Skip to footer

Write Right

The Writing Life

  • About
  • Services
  • Clients
  • Blog
  • Comics
  • Contact
  • Subscribe

Living on Mission

August 27, 2013 By Erin Beasley

Storm Trooper with teddy bear.When you figure out what you’re meant to do – what you’re really, really meant to do – things begin to come into focus. You begin to view your life through a certain lens, a particular mission. The more you work with that lens, the clearer the picture becomes. You turn it this way and that to account for the extra light or darkness. You do what you must to keep that picture clear and in focus.

It isn’t easy; living on mission can mean making radical choices, often choices that won’t be understood by those closest to you. You may have to give up some good things in order to pursue better things. Your friends may wonder why you don’t answer your phone. Your family may think you’re slightly, if not completely, insane to choose the route you have. You, too, have your doubts about this mission. You wonder if you can do it. You wonder if you can bring the picture you see to fruition. You wonder what will happen when it comes time to remove the film from the camera or to work in the dark room. Perhaps the image won’t be as clear then. Perhaps it will be marred by something outside your control. What then?

Indeed, what then. In that then, you must make a choice. Either you choose to leave that mission and to pursue other things, or you choose to believe you have a mission, a calling, despite the misgivings. You look at the picture again. You decide what you have to do next to make the image sharper, to make the results better the next time you develop the film. You decide you have a mission, and you choose to live by it.

Image: Kristina Alexanderson (CC BY NC SA 2.0)

Share this:

  • Click to share on X (Opens in new window) X
  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window) Facebook
  • Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window) LinkedIn
  • Click to share on Tumblr (Opens in new window) Tumblr
  • Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window) Pinterest
  • Click to email a link to a friend (Opens in new window) Email

Related Posts

Filed Under: Work Life Tagged With: mission

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. geoffliving says

    August 27, 2013 at 10:40 pm

    Does that mean you are coming to SciFi Con in San Antonio this weekend, Dune girl?

  2. Erin F. says

    August 28, 2013 at 8:15 am

    geoffliving Haha! I didn’t know about it. I’m actually helping a friend move this weekend, so I guess not. 🙂

  3. ExtremelyAvg says

    August 30, 2013 at 9:07 am

    You described exactly how I’ve felt for over three years. I don’t really go out and socialize more than about once per year. I visit my parents a few times per month, but mostly I just work on books or book related stuff.
    It isn’t that I don’t like being out in the world and doing fun stuff, it’s just that I believe my mission comes first. When I’ve reached the “Tipping Point”, as Malcolm Gladwell says, then I’ll become a social create again…or find a new mission. 🙂

  4. Erin F. says

    August 30, 2013 at 1:19 pm

    ExtremelyAvg I think it depends on where you are in life, too. I know I’m at a certain juncture where I welcome some interruptions into my oh-so-busy life.
    My mission, if I get beyond the surface level of the writing, editing, and art, is people. If any three of those things become an obstruction to being a blessing to others, then it will be time for me to quit those things. Am I meant to write and draw and seemingly edit? I think so, but only insofar as I remember to consider others more important than myself.
    I think you must be able to do without fewer social interactions than I. 🙂

  5. ExtremelyAvg says

    August 30, 2013 at 1:50 pm

    Erin F. ExtremelyAvg I think I’m probably better at a monk like existence than most. As long as I have my computer, I’m pretty happy.

Trackbacks

  1. Be Strong and Do the Work - Write Right says:
    November 3, 2013 at 4:32 pm

    […] The phrase is a bit more personal than that; my mom referred to the same verse in a letter she wrote me a few years ago. She wanted me to remember to be strong. She wanted me to think about doing the work I was and am called to do then to go out and actually do it. She wrote those words to a girl who was about to enter college, but the words still resonate today: be strong and do the work. […]

  2. How to Launch Yourself into the Unknown - Write Right says:
    January 30, 2014 at 6:30 am

    […] to dwell in that space, but you know – you know – it isn’t the best place. It isn’t the one to which you are called. You are called to the unknown. You know this, but you feel the hesitation. How to leave what is […]

  3. Keep Calm and Write On - Write Right says:
    May 29, 2014 at 6:31 am

    […] Both Gaiman and Rumi seem to express the same thought: keep calm and do what you’re called to do. Do it when you’re wounded and hurting. Do it when you’re struggling just to get out of bed in the morning or to eat a meal. Do it when you’re unencumbered. Don’t let the external ruin the internal. Don’t get distracted from what matters most. Don’t let the pain, the sorrow, the anger, or the happiness keep you from doing what you’re meant to do. […]

  4. Quit Wasting Time - Write Right says:
    August 21, 2014 at 6:32 am

    […] tired of feeling like I’m wasting time and space. I want to focus on bigger and better things. I want to become the woman God desires me to be. I want to know I’m filling my mind and heart with good things. I want to go to bed with a sense […]

  5. Who are You Writing for? - Write Right says:
    November 18, 2014 at 6:33 am

    […] When you feel uncertain that your work is reaching anyone, remember Dickinson. You never know which of your acts, great or small, will save a life. You only know that you must do what you have been called to do. […]

  6. Pursue Joy - Write Right says:
    July 22, 2015 at 10:01 am

    […] the correct course of action. Keep it mind, but don’t be so consumed by it that you forget your true purpose. After all, is making the New York Times bestseller list all that wonderful a […]

  7. Change the Stakes - Write Right says:
    August 11, 2015 at 10:04 am

    […] light made things clear. The issue wasn’t what happened to his body. The issue was God’s mission, and His mission was to see His name proclaimed in Jerusalem. The light changed the […]

  8. On Mission and Values - Write Right says:
    February 23, 2016 at 10:02 am

    […] evaluate who I am as a daughter of the King and how that transforms, well, everything? Do I have a mission and values? Do they shape my daily […]

Footer

Follow Write Right

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • X
  • LinkedIn
  • Tumblr

Copyright Write Right © 2025 · Atmosphere Pro on Genesis Framework

  • Subscribe to Write Right
  • Email Write Right
 

Loading Comments...