By Elizabeth Guka (UPNG journalism student)
Identifying one’s calling in life and working on what they are most passionate about, may not be as easy as it seems. For some, it may come easily, but for others, it may take a little bit of inspiration and motivation from other sources to try to push them to identify their calling in life and to use it to their fullest potential. These other sources may be through the stories and experiences of the people who have gone down the pathway of identifying their calling in life and working on what they are most passionate about, and using it to their full advantage to better their lives or for making an impact in the lives of others.
8 Million Possibilities, is a book project with a compilation of stories from Papua New Guineans from all walks of life, who have gone through certain challenges in life and are doing extraordinary things to better their lives, as well as the lives of others.
The book project aims to inspire other Papua New Guineas to identify their calling, abilities or talents in life and to encourage them to identity what they are most passionate about and to use it to better themselves and those around them.
The book project is an initiative of John Kamasua, a lecturer in the field of Social Work at the University of Papua New Guinea.
Kamasua started the project in late 2018 with the idea that all people can be happy and content with life if they can find their purpose in life and work towards developing it.
Sharing about how the concept of the book project came about, Kamasua said, “It was sometimes in late 2018, that I woke up one morning at around 4am and was thinking about certain things in life, and stumbled upon the idea of how life would be if everybody found their calling or purpose in life, and if they worked on developing their passion, particularly on something they were specifically good at doing.
“I had this idea that if all Papua New Guineans, eight million of us, found something that we are good at and worked on developing it on a daily basis, just imagine all the possibilities and opportunities that would come from there.
“Each of us have different gifts, we have to use a quality portion of our lives to find out about what we are good at and to use it to our fullest potential.”
Kamasua believes that many people are not happy in life because they have not found their purpose in life.
“I believe that we all have different abilities and a calling in life, and that if we try to identify these callings and work on improving them, we can live a happy life, and to be content and even successful.
“You should not be worried about what other people are doing or not doing or what you should do, instead be concerned with being on a path of finding your calling and living a purposeful and successful life.
“If success can translate to business, money, happiness or other things, and if life is meant to be enjoyed, then we can all be happy in life only when we find our true calling and purpose in life.”
Kamasua added “I think many people struggle in life because they have not found their calling or purpose in life and as a result they struggle to do things that they are not passionate about or meant to do.
“Like for example, there are people who do not find satisfaction at work, and are not happy at work places simply because they are not doing something that they are passionate about.”
The book project was named 8 Million Possibilities because PNG has a population of eight million plus people, and if each Papua New Guinean can be inspired and encouraged to find their purpose in life and to identity their true calling and to do what they are most passionate about, there would indeed be eight million possibilities out there, as the title of the book project suggests.
“The idea of the book project is to get stories of Papua New Guineans from different walks of life, whether it is politicians, business man and women, students, academics or anyone through which whose stories can demonstrate that all people come with possibilities, and that some of these people in the stories are now living those possibilities, and that people can do great things with their life.
“A classic example of this is Mr Christopher Tep, who started a business in producing a natural plant fertiliser, “Grow Hariap Fertilizer” which is now helping many Papua New Guinean farmers across the country to increase their yield in production.
“Mr Tep’s story will also be featured in the book,” Kamasua said.
Through the concept of the book project, Kamasua started collecting stories from people back in 2019.
Some stories are of students, politicians, businessmen and women, CEO’s, academics and many others. So far he has collected almost 50 stories and is looking forward to receiving more inspiring stories from other Papua New Guineans out there who would like to share their stories in the book project with the hopes of encouraging and inspiring other Papua New Guineans.
Kamasua has received overwhelming response from people about the project.
“Initially the response was staggering. When I posted on social media about the book project, I received so many emails and even messages on Facebook from people as far as the United States, United Kingdom, Australia and even throughout Papua New Guinea asking me if they could contribute their stories to the book project.
“There are some who still haven’t gotten back to me because of certain reasons that they have, but so far most of the stories I have received are truly inspiring.”
Through the course of establishing the book project, and collecting stories from people, the task of editing and compiling the stories have been a challenge for Mr Kamasua.
“Throughout 2019, I slowed down a bit with the project because the rate at which stories were coming in was slowing down, and it sort of got to me to quit on the book project.
“It was really challenging trying to teach at the same time, manage other things, and also work on the book project, and so I almost gave up along the way.
“However, when I read some of the stories that were submitted, it also inspired me not to give up on the book project itself.
“It is not just an ordinary book, I believe that it is a book that holds valuable principles of life and positive experiences that will live on and impact the lives of many readers in the years to come,” added Kamasua.
Kamasua has recently met with some of the story contributors of the book, and has discussed on ways forward for the book project.
“We have established a volunteer committee for the group made up of the story contributors themselves, who will work together to seek avenues on how we can be able to have the book published.
“We now have people contributing ideas and planning a way forward for the publication of the book, and if it means to host fundraising events or to write to organizations to sponsor the publication and launching of the book, the committee will work together to find a way to have the book published, hopefully by next year.
“We want people (the readers) all over the country to be inspired by these stories and to take ownership of their lives.”
The 8 Million Possibilities book project has a Facebook page named “8 Million Possibilities Book Project”.
People can follow on the progress of the project on this page and also ask questions via this platform.
