Ellen Hayakawa, an accomplished teacher and author, will be speaking tonight and Tuesday on “Creating the work you love,” and “Discovering your children’s spiritual gifts.”
Before her breakthrough, Hayakawa had worked for a decade in a desirable, secure job as a federal government wildlife biologist, she was depressed and deeply unhappy.
A friend and colleague invited her to lunch and said, “You’re never going to use all your gifts and talents doing the work you’re doing.”
Hayakawa said that those words cut like a knife to the source of her frustration and were a huge wake-up call. It turns out that Hayakawa was not alone. The Conference Board says that less than 50 percent of people are happy with their jobs or work.
Doing meaningful work, where people give their gifts and talents in service to others, creates deep personal satisfaction and fulfillment.
“To be a healthy human being, just as we need to develop and maintain our bodies and our minds, we need to develop and maintain our emotions and our spirit,” she said.
It goes for children as well.
“Children who learn to make decisions using their spiritual gifts will naturally create the work they love later on in life. They will not have to suffer the way many of us have as adults, trying to figure that out,” she said.
The free public talk on “Discovering your children’s spiritual gifts” is 7 p.m. tonight at the Hawaiian Queen Coffee Garden, 75-1048 Henry St. in Kona. At 7 p.m. Tuesday talk about “The 5 step blueprint to creating the joyful divinely inspired work you love” at the same location.
Info: www.ellenhayakawa.com.