Mastery - Part Two

Every human life carries the potential for greatness, seeded at birth through our unique inclinations and curiosities. Yet in a world that prioritizes conformity, security, and external validation, many of us drift far from our true path. This essay continues to draw upon the teachings of Robert Greene to explore the journey of discovering and actualizing one’s Life’s Task - the inner calling that aligns who we are with the work we do, in other words, our purpose. This piece guides you through the forces that support and oppose this journey, and the stages of reconnecting with a vocation rooted in personal authenticity. In a time when meaning and purpose are in high demand, this is a call to reclaim agency and walk the winding path back to ourselves.

Discover Your Calling - Your Life’s Task

“At your birth a seed is planted. That seed is your uniqueness. It wants to grow, transform itself, and flower to its full potential. It has a natural, assertive energy to it. Your Life’s Task is to bring that seed to flower, to express your uniqueness through your work. You have a destiny to fulfill.” - Robert Greene

Greene asserts that our life’s task is emerges in our genetic uniqueness. We are each a one-time phenomenon in the universe – our specific genetic makeup has never occurred before and will never be reproduced. This unique and individual life task first emerges in childhood through “certain primal inclinations.” These inclinations, as discussed in part one, are clear to you as a child – as if you were mystically directed towards certain activities and subjects naturally. These activities and subjects sparked a deep and primal curiosity within you.

Pragmatically, these primal inclinations can be described as your vocation. A vocation is more than work, it’s a calling, it “emanates from your individuality and it tells you which activities suit your character and at a certain point, it calls you to a particular form of work or career.” By nurturing your inclinations, and engaging with your vocation, “your career path becomes deeply connected to who you are, not a separate compartment in your life.” The question remains, how do you know your inclinations and your vocation? And, how do you begin to shift your life such that you are nurturing your inclinations and working in your vocation?

As mentioned above, there appears to be a sort of mystical inner force that directs you towards certain activities and subjects. Greene refers to this as the Hidden Force – an inner force that seeks to guide you toward your purpose, i.e. what you are meant to accomplish in the time you have in this world.

The Hidden Force

We experience this force when we engage in activities or subjects that align with our natural inclinations, it shows up as the feeling of “words writing themselves, or performing physical movements so quickly and easily it’s as if they are coming from outside of us.” Another example is knowing the right answer to something from a gut feeling, or having the experience of pieces of a puzzle are fitting together in your mind as you’re learning new information.

The inner Hidden Force comes from a deep place in our souls, conscious words can’t express what is happening, the inner force can only be felt. It draws us to certain experiences and places as well as away from others. As we follow this inner force our minds develop in very particular ways. Greene shares the story of Leonardo Da Vinci in this section to emphasize how this inner force can move someone towards seemingly random and unconnected experiences, but always keeping us on track to fulfill on our Life’s Task. Da Vinci began by exploring the natural world around his village and drawing what he discovered. He became one of histories most influential polymaths of the Renaissance who was a master painter, draughtsman, engineer, scientist, theorists, sculptor, architect and much more. Many times in his life Da Vinci was led towards certain odd choices or unique directions in his life, he followed his inclinations and honored his Hidden Force which eventually led him to the experiences that fulfilled his Life’s Task.

The Counter Force

In a perfect world, we discover these inclinations as early as we can and we then nurture them as we age, dedicating our lives to the activity or subject that seems to naturally fit who we are. However, as we all know, this rarely happens for anyone in the world. Generally, we are pushed away from our natural inclinations by Counter Forces, including: parents, friends, school, societal expectations, religious beliefs, environmental circumstances, etc. Eventually we are far removed from our natural inclinations and experience a disconnect in life, an unknown source of unhappiness that seeps into the crevasses of our souls.

The Counter Force is very powerful, and the degree to which you have succumbed to these counter forces – social pressures to conform, fitting into groups – can influence your connection to your inner force and you even come to doubt its existence. Unconsciously, you might feel as though what makes you different or unique in the world is embarrassing, painful, materially useless, won’t make you any kind of money or help you survive in the world. Parents often act as a strong counter force as they may seek to direct you towards certain lucrative and secure career paths; or direct you towards certain identities or ways of being in the world that simply don’t align with who you truly are. Parents almost always do this out of love, although it tends to come off as control. As these counter forces become strong enough, you can completely lose touch with your uniqueness and who you really are. “Your inclinations and desires become modeled on those of others,” leading you to feel like you’re living an inauthentic life.

Stages of Realizing Your Life’s Task

The stronger you can feel and maintain your connection to the Hidden Force – in whatever form it comes to you – the greater your chance of fulfilling your unique purpose in life. As such, the first move towards discovering and pursuing your purpose in life is always inward, “learning who you really are and reconnecting with that inner force. Knowing it with clarity, you will find your way to the proper career path and everything else will fall into place.” It’s never too late to start this process – and right now is the perfect time to start. The Hidden Force is always in you and ready to be engaged at any point in life. Note that it is obviously easier to engage this process earlier in life. Beginning the process later in life can feel overwhelming as we have much more baggage to sort through, but consider that perhaps everything you have done prior to connecting to your Hidden Force and discovering your life’s purpose is essential to fulfilling your purpose. No experience is wasted or lost.

Greene shares that the process for realizing your purpose comes in three stages: One, connecting or reconnecting with your inclinations; Two, examine your current career and life path; and three, see your career and life path as a winding journey rather than a straight line.

Connecting or Reconnecting with your inclinations

Phase one is rather straight forward but may be the most difficult. This phase is purely internal and requires a lot of reflection, conversation and self-exploration. Consider this as a forensic search of yourself and your past as you try to discover underlining patterns in your life that express the core of your character and of your purpose. You want to find signs of that inner force, times where you were doing something that felt easy to you but hard to others, perhaps certain obsessions or deep interests, subjects in school that lit you up more than others, moments in life that made you feel authentic. You may want to speak to your parents, childhood friends, people who have known you for a long time who can share about your uniqueness as a child.

Look into the present moments of your life as well. Where do you feel most at home? What do you do that makes you forget everything around you? Where do your dreams and aspirations go to most often? Is there a certain subject or activity you are constantly drawn towards?

Your facility in discovering your purpose will depend on how “far off track” you are, however, your life purpose often feels obvious to you, it may simply be overshadowed by the influences of counter forces and other considerations. If you are resisting what you feel is your purpose, this is a clear sign that you know what your purpose is, you must simply turn off the noise and embrace it.

“Become who you are by learning who you are.” - Pindar

Examine Your Current Career or Life Path

The choice of or redirection of your career and life path is critical. Of course, your inclinations may not be suited for a traditional career path, but considering we spend a third of our lives engaged in work (another third is spent on sleeping, eating and going to the bathroom), it is critical to enlarge your concept of work itself. Far too often we compartmentalize our lives, there is our work life where we make money and life outside of work where we find pleasure and fulfillment. Even if you find enjoyment and forms of fulfillment in your career, we spend a substantial amount of our waking lives at work and so it is desperately important to see work as “something more inspiring, as part of your vocation.”

The point isn’t to quit your day job and pursue a risky and financially uncertain career path right away. The point is to consider how your current career path can alter over time to best align with your inclinations and vocation. Perhaps your inclinations are completely far removed from your current career path, and so the approach may be to consider a long-term shift in careers.

The idea of “starting over” can be terrifying and seem completely impossible due to personal and financial considerations. And it’s ultimately a personal choice, no one is forcing to do this. But if you are reading this there is a part of you who is direly in need to change.

Winding Journey vs. Straight Line

“You must begin by choosing a field or position that roughly aligns with your inclinations, the first choice may not be the perfect fit, but it’s the beginning of the journey and will offer you room to maneuver and opportunities to learn important skills.” The first choice might seem like a risky restart to life, or perhaps a lower paying position, in fact it’s important not to start with something too ambitious or risky – you still need to make a living and you want to establish some confidence. As you begin on this journey, you will find side routes that attract you and other aspects that repel you. You simply adjust, learn more about yourself and continue to follow the Hidden Force guiding your life as you now follow a vocation.

“Eventually” Greene says, “you will hit upon a particular field, niche, or opportunity that suits you perfectly. You will recognize it when you find it because it will spark that childlike sense of wonder and excitement; it will feel right. Once found, everything will fall into place. You will learn more quickly and more deeply. Your skill level will reach a point where you will be able to claim your independence from within the group you work for and move out on your own. In a world in which there is so much we cannot control, this will bring you the ultimate form of power. You will determine your circumstances.”

What naturally tends to happen is you find yourself embarking into entrepreneurship in one way or another. Even if you find your vocation within an institution (perhaps as a teacher, as a health care professional, first responder, military, etc.) you begin to engage with your work and life as an entrepreneur, as someone who is able to detect and solve problems independently. Your individualized, creative skills become a premium around the world as you are working in alignment with who you are and exuding a powerful energy that influences the world around you.

Your Life’s Task is not something outside of you—it is encoded in your nature, waiting for you to listen, remember, and respond. While societal pressures and life’s demands may have buried this calling beneath layers of practicality and conformity, it can be reclaimed through introspection, courage, and a willingness to pursue what feels deeply right. Purpose is not reserved for a chosen few; it belongs to those who dare to live in alignment with their true nature. By following your inclinations and responding to the Hidden Force within, you do more than find meaningful work—you become a powerful, creative force in the world. You become who you were meant to be.