Don’t allow your unique talents to be watered down or drowned out
The world and everyone in it, is distracted. If you are not marketed to death, social media messaged into oblivion, then you might have developed a twitch to check your emails, your Insta, your Whatsapp, your Netflix recordings every 5 minutes. Then there are all the social and economic obligations: keeping the wolves from the door by paying your bills, turning up at work when required, arranging the diaries of family members and anyone else you made promises to. Eat, sleep, work (or rave?-I don’t think so), repeat. What is it all for? Life can feel like you’re running very fast down a mountain. You’re no longer in control of your own legs. Stopping isn’t an option as momentum has got the better of you. So down the mountain you go, surrounded by others in the same predicament but unable to stop, unable to question it.
The noise of the modern world is so overwhelming that it takes guts to be deaf to it. Or at least to have the filters in place that make you listen to your own songs, words, talents, desires. Who can -these days- drown out the white noise enough to hear what is being prompted? People -swept up in the current- don’t know what they want anymore. they become watered down version of themselves. If you forever are being thrown about in the pinball machine of life, then you get dizzy, tired and eventually even fed up but unable to stop it. You don’t get to be you, you don’t get to contribute what you were meant to contribute. All those missed opportunities make life less colourful, less interesting and more pre-fab. Cue depression and illness.
When’s the last time you focussed on what’s really important, or do you constantly spend your time being occupied with external factors? Who are you really, when no-one’s looking? Who are you when the tech and 21st century crutches are removed? What is your unlived life?
This weekend I went to a funeral of a mother of a boy in my son’s class. The devastating fragility of life was evident everywhere in the room. A delicately painful reminder of someone who wanted to live, but who’s life was taken over and eventually robbed by cancer. None of the memories that afternoon were about how many trends she followed, how many posts she liked or even how much money she made, or how hard she worked, because it doesn’t mean diddly squat. It was all about those things she deeply loved being and doing. It was all about family, friends and moments created and remembered.
If it’s true that you have the opportunity to make a unique mark on this planet, then do it. If you have a love, follow it. If you have a passion, inspire others. If you don’t know what you are supposed to do, find out. There are no boundaries on what you can create. You don’t need a script, a manual or instructions on how to go about it. Start with who you are truly when no-one’s looking. Listen carefully and beat the resistance that will want to entice you back to the pinball machine.
Are you ready to reinvent, re-shape, innovate and transition your life, your career, your business?
