What are you good at?

You know this whole Big Tick thing has got me thinking. It really doesn't matter what society I go to, I'm fast discovering that I'm crap at everything, but strangely, I don't mind.

Maybe I'm just older and wiser than I once was. When I was younger I was desperately concerned with being good at something. Maybe it was the lack of identity that seems to afflict the young, or not having a house and money and a car.

Whatever it is, I am now more concerned with having fun with darts than being good at it.

It was something Bethnall Green Dave said to me recently when we were discussing my job. He said to me than just because you are good at something (eg a job) doesn't mean you should do it. Maybe it means other people should want you to do it but actually maybe you shouldn't.

BGD used to have what many people would consider a dream job, but he gave it up because he didn't want to do it anymore. Other people were gutted, what he did until recently he did even better and now he is going to do something else again.

I guess a lot of students face this one because they get to university and they have pitched up here because they were good at Maths at A-level, or french or history or whatever and they haven't actually decided that this is what they want to do. I was talking to someone the other day about a student who dropped out of ship science because he wanted to build boats rather than design them. His mum went ballistic though. I just think 'good on him'.

I got given a book this week by another friend St Andrews Gareth. He has sent me a book on how to do cascading style sheets. Hopefully I'm going to make-over the chaplaincy web site. Once upon a time I was quite good at working with computers. I did that when I first left school. I was before I left school without doubt the most computer literate pupil in the entire school but actually I woke up one day and realised that I really wanted to work with people and the rest as they say is history. If I had stuck with computers I'd now be over a decade into my career and I'd be earning about 5 times my salary, but I know this is more me.

Of course the story doesn't end there because since my arrival here my life has been a bit of a microcosm of the whole church of England and I do question exactly what I am doing the future is far from certain, but whatever happens I'm going to be me.

So ask yourself...why do you do what you do? Is it because you're good at it? Is it because you just fell into it? Is it because it is the best thing for you?

And then go and find yourself.

Church of England Chaplain University of Southampton Southampton University University Soton Uni