‘“Life’s too short” is repeated often enough to be a cliche, but this time it’s true. You don’t have enough time to be both unhappy and mediocre. It’s not just pointless, it’s painful. Instead of wondering when your next vacation is, maybe you ought to set up a life you don’t need to escape from.’
– Seth Godin
I know it’s my age, but my generation is stuck.
Stuck doing work that doesn’t matter.
And in nearly every case, they’ve abandoned all hope of becoming what they truly are — a life half lived if you will.
It sounds depressing – it bloody well is.
And what are they doing about it?
Well…nothing.
It’s not that they’re waiting for permission or even need it.
Neither is it inertia.
No.
It’s fear.
Fear of:
-
the new narrative, i.e. not one based on the industrial complex
-
starting again
-
losing everything they own (or does it own them?)
-
having to commit
-
failure
-
being judged a failure
-
standing up
-
living close to who they really are and not living a shadow career
Unless you’ve been living under a rock, right now, we’re being exposed, daily, to the new ‘revolution’, one based on connection where you don’t need permission, capital or a platform.
And yet, we stall, vacillate and don’t commit.
As someone who’s trying to navigate this unpredictable, uncertain world, I feel the drag of Resistance every single day. But I know that unless I keep pushing, even if that means moving at a snail’s pace, I too will be overwhelmed by the system.
I don’t know what the next few years will bring for me — I hope it involves more speaking, writing and sharing my love of the natural world — but I know that I’d much rather be thrashing about in this primordial soup than being lost among the lost.
But, of course, it’s not just about me. It’s about trying to connect the disconnected, shining a light on doing work that matters, creating art and in the process becoming what we truly are.
The time will never be right, which means at some stage you either have to commit or accept your fate. Living betwixt is not an option. It’s worse than a shadow existence. It’s no existence.
If you do nothing else today, go for a walk and ask yourself what really, deeply matters to you. And then ask yourself what you’re doing to move you closer to embracing all of it. If the answer is in the negative, then stop daydreaming. Seize the moment, and do something different to yesterday. Keep doing that one tiny step at a time, and you’ll experience change. Do nothing, and nothing will happen.
If this sounds like serious serious work then it is. It’s the most serious of your life to date.
PS. I hope you like Charles Eisenstein’s talk.