Duty

tl;dr: on the benefits and burden of duty, and the idea of a personal mission

I’ve been binge-watching The Crown, Season 4 and it’s made me think a great deal about the concept of duty.

The Queen and the royal family are very aware of the burden of duty and it weighs on each of them in different ways.

Princess Margaret takes to smoking and alcohol. Prince Charles marries Lady Di even though he’d rather be with Camilla Parker-Bowles. The Queen allows tradition and responsibility to the Crown to trump her emotional feelings, and so on.

There’s a burden to duty that clearly wears them down. On the other hand, there’s a nobility (pun intended, though now that I think about it, maybe the term’s double-entendre has a history) to putting aside your personal wants and needs and serving others.

My coach recently challenged me to write a personal mission statement. I haven’t done it yet, but I realize I need to.

At this stage of life, I feel the need to clarify my larger purpose and mission in a way that encompasses the obvious things (making sure my kids are healthy and provided for) as well as the non-obvious things (how do I bring my unique traits to help others in some way?).

Perhaps from there, the burdens of duty don’t feel as heavy and the benefits of duty can be uplifting.

I’d be really curious to hear what others sense of duty and mission is.