How To Find Your Voice and Serve Your World George Yen

"Find your voice. Serve Your World." is an intriguing and thought provoking theme of our International President Dilip
Abayasekara. We can think of giants of the world who have found their voice and served their world; like Helen Keller, and Mother Theresa. But what about for ordinary persons like you and me? Does it have any relevance to our lives? To these two questions, my answer is a resounding "YES" --- if you don't want your life to be anything more than the fleeting footprints on the beach to be washed away by the next ocean wave.

Find Your Voice and serve your world, can been defined in terms of the 4 Ws:

Who we are

Why we are here

What our purpose in life is and

What difference would we make.

These are existential questions that only human beings have the capability to ask. The reason is of course we are the only animal with the freedom of choice.

"Find Your Voice" is probably the more difficult than "Serve Your World" because once we have found our voice --- whatever that may be then serving your world becomes clearer. So how do we find our voice? I believe there are 3 main ways people find their voice.

I. Those who are born with a special, gift, talent or mission Some examples are musical geniuses like Mozart or Beethoven, who seem to be born to create great music as a gift to the world. Or there are those who know early that they have a special mission in life. Joan of Arc is such an example. As a teenage peasant girl she spoke out against injustices she saw, stood fast in the face of adversity and was burned at the stakes in pursuit of that mission.

II. Those who found their voice by circumstances of fate. Helen Keller's story is famous: born blind, deaf and mute, she literally found her voice when she was taught by Anne Sullivan to read and speak. She became a spokesperson and champion of the handicapped and underprivileged. In a very true sense, Helen Keller found her voice and served her world.

III. Those who found their voice and served the world by conscious choice. A famous example is that of Gandhi. Having been humiliated by overt racial discrimination in South Africa, he could have responded in a number of ways; 1) fight back with violence which would have accomplished nothing except to feel good momentarily. 2) Run away and return to India and live among his people in dignity. 3) He chose the 3rd option of remaining in South Africa where he stayed for 22 years and developed the philosophy of non-violence. The voice of non-violence was what he used to drive out the British and lead India to Independence.

Passion and Pain

From the examples above we find that there are 2 common denominators for those who have found their voice and served their world. They can be called "P&P".

I. The first "P" is for passion, whether it is either inborn or discovered later in life. Most of the world's great artists - Mozart, Michelangelo, Van Gogh - seem to fall into the inborn passion category. Their work was their life, their passion, their voice.

Then there are leaders like Joan of Arc and Tse Chi and humanitarians like Mother Theresa, Dr. Albert Schweitzer who expressed their passion in the work they did for the world.

Once we find our passion we can find our voice. Therefore, start by looking at your passions, what you feel strongly about.

II. The 2nd "P" is for pain. One definition of "Pain" is to feel deeply about something it rises from the very core of our being and existence.

Imprisoned by her sensory handicaps, Helen Keller experienced unspeakable pain. But when she gained her ability to communicate and found her voice, she had also found her destiny to serve her world.

Gandhi suffered the deep and humiliating pain of racial discrimination. From that pain he CHOSE "non-violent" protest as his voice to serve his world in India. Gandhi is honored as the "Father of India". It is noteworthy that he never held any official office or position in achieving that national leadership role. It is the purest form of leadership based on simply his voice. His voice not only changed India but the rest of the world. Martin Luther King heard his voice and changed the American society. The voice of "non-violent protest" made a paradigm shift in the course of human history.

One might note that there is a connection between passion and pain. Both are related to feeling deeply and both are instrumental in finding your voice. In life, pain cannot be avoided, and if it is something that can be avoided the best thing to do is to wade right through it. You just might find your voice in the midst of the pain.

Therefore, stay in touch with your P&P (Passion and Pain), which are the two pillars of human existence. We will be rewarded by the discovery of our voice and the opportunity to serve our world.

Compliment of George Yen DTM, Candidate for ID, DNAR