Enola Holmes 3 Review: The Hidden Lesson on Finding Your Calling
A new movie in the Enola Holmes 3 series has arrived on Netflix. The story revolves around Enola Holmes’s detective skills and proves how worthy she is of the Holmes name. The movie is a joy to watch, especially for fans of Sherlock Holmes.
The Enola Holmes movies are much more light-hearted than the Sherlock Holmes web series. The period setting gives a great perspective on how people lived at that time, yet the film never feels bogged down by traditional period drama constraints.
I found Enola’s mother, Eudoria Holmes, to be one of the most fascinating characters in the series. Her open mind and free-spirited thoughts drew me to her. It would be amazing to see a spin-off series dedicated to her adventures, especially since she remains a rebel and a fugitive even after raising three grown children.
Beyond a simple plot summary of Enola Holmes 3—which you can find anywhere on the internet—I want to draw your attention to a specific scene. Enola meets Eudoria, who has just saved her daughter’s life, and asks what she is doing there. Because she is a fugitive, Eudoria cannot even attend her daughter’s wedding.
They discuss their perilous situation: both Sherlock and Enola mother-in-law have been kidnapped, and Enola has just discovered that Moriarty is the mastermind behind the facade disrupting their lives.
The conversation smoothly transitions from Moriarty to Enola’s personal life. Society expects Enola to become a proper lady, a role she despises. She loves her partner and wants to marry him, but she rejects the traditional family setup that comes with it.
Despite her reluctance, Enola tries to do everything her future mother-in-law demands. Seeing this, Eudoria asks her why she is doing it—a question Sherlock Holmes also asks her earlier. Enola claims she wants to, but in that pivotal moment,
Eudoria says, “There are two paths you can take, yours or the path others choose for you.”
The Illusion of the Safe Path
That line clicked in my mind. Have we ever stopped to ask ourselves what we are doing? Are we pursuing what we truly desire, or are we just following the expectations of our parents, teachers, peers, and society? Thinking this way is an act of rebellion, as living life on your own terms is never easy.
Society’s pressure to churn out massive numbers of corporate graduates has led to severe unemployment and dissatisfaction. Very few people actually know what they are doing or what they should be doing. There are no shortcuts, and every field comes with its own struggles. However, if you enjoy the field you work in, the struggle becomes much less painful.
Choosing a path dictated by others might seem “safe,” but that safety comes at a heavy cost. Parents push their children to earn a living by following society’s rigid rules, which ultimately contributes to a highly saturated and frustrated workforce.
First, discovering what you actually want to do is one of the greatest things that can happen in life. Second, if you manage to make a living doing that exact thing, the money is just the cherry on top.
Finding the Present Moment
Often, we fail to understand life itself. What is life? What is our purpose? Many people only ask themselves these questions after they have supposedly “settled down.” The problem is that we constantly look for life in the future or the past, ignoring the present. Life only exists in the present. Even if you earn a billion dollars, you cannot spend it all in this exact second. Therefore, this present moment is the only thing truly in our hands—we can either use it to truly live, or we can use it to suffer.
People who let others choose their path often become the most stressed individuals, especially when they finally gain their freedom but lack the courage to change their lives. In the Bhagavad Gita, Shri Krishna says that you should do your duty without attachment to the results. He says this because constantly obsessing over the outcome prevents us from doing our work properly in the present.
The result is never entirely in our hands. The only thing we control is our ability to perform the task in front of us so completely that we no longer even crave the reward. The job itself becomes fulfilling. It isn’t rocket science: if you perform your task fully, the appropriate consequences will follow. And even if the result isn’t what you hoped for, you can learn from the failure and improve.
Making Work Playful
When you let go of the result, your job becomes playful. Athletes understand this best. In cricket, a batsman feels immensely satisfied when the bat connects perfectly with the ball, even if it doesn’t result in a boundary. The connection itself feels so good that the external result no longer matters.
The same applies to every other job in the world. When people love their work, they turn it into play; conversely, even a fun game becomes a chore if you are forced to do it. We all have different upbringings, schooling, and life situations. We are all entirely unique, yet we constantly try to imitate each other.
The next time this quote hits you—“There are two paths you can take, yours or the path others choose for you”—stop everything and dwell on it. If your answer is that you are already on your own path, you don’t need to change a thing. Just flow with time and your work.
If the answer is no, start searching for your calling. What are you naturally good at? One metric to identify your calling is the level of friction you feel: when you do the right work, your system feels less resistance. It feels like play. I have seen many “bad” students turn out to be brilliant in entirely different, unexpected fields.
Even if your interest seems unconventional—like a fascination with alcohol, for example—explore it deeply. Creative professionals in the beverage industry craft unique drinks, understand complex flavor profiles, and know exactly how and when to serve them.
Ultimately, no matter what your work is, if you do it consciously and fully, it becomes an art. I can confidently say that every one of us is an artist. People often claim that professionals in technical fields aren’t creative, but that is simply because many of them were forced into those fields. I have met engineers who love their jobs so much that their peers consider their technical output to be a true work of art.
There is nothing inherently wrong with the job you are currently doing; the issue is simply that life doesn’t care about our excuses. We all face survival phases where we must do things we dislike just to get by. But during those survival phases, people naturally work to their absolute fullest because necessity drives them.
Once that survival phase passes, however, if a person still refuses to do what they are meant for, they will die unsatisfied. The right time to start your true journey is always now. There is no future or past—only the present moment, waiting for you to do what you truly want to do.
Share your thoughts in the comments below. What is it that you truly want to do in life? Share your own experiences with life’s paths, and feel free to share this article with others.
Be Happy! Be Wise!