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Take a jump. Any jump. Try a new kind of coffee. Call an old friend who might hold a grudge. Tell your spouse something you’ve held back for years. We are all too comfortable in our own skins. We think we know the nooks and crannies of our souls because we stopped looking for new ones. It’s time to shake it up. How do you ever expect to live a life worth living if you won’t explore the life you’ve already got? When you have a good idea, take the time to write it down. You won’t remember it later The person you are talking to can wait. Saying “I should write that down” does not count. When I was in college, my engineer friends turned me on to a web comic called XKCD. It’s mainly about math and science, but it’s surprisingly sweet and easily accessible. It’s humor is genuine and rich, satirizing our human foibles with a smile. Last month, I discovered that a group of people had set up a website entirely for the purpose of tearing the author of the comic down. They claim they were are offering critique, but their comments are simply hurtful and ugly, displaying only disdain for the work of another human being. Remember always that this is the world in which we live. It is literally impossible to produce something without engendering a sense of hatred in someone. Yet, you should also remember that the hatred is meaningless. It isn’t about you or your creations. It is a reaction to the threat you’ve created, the idea that each and every person has the potential to produce something meaningful. Haters are gonna hate. Don’t let them shake your resolve. Social media gives the impression that you’re interacting with others, but it has the potential to create an echo chamber. You believe you’ve reached new people, but you are only talking to yourself. Get out there and stretch a bit. Leave your home turf and visit a networking event, conference, or even Internet forum that you do not control. You’ve got to press the flesh a bit to get out the word. Even if that flesh is still digital. Your vision demands interactions. It wants you to sell it, to push it, and to proclaim it at every opportunity. But it can’t grow without a little loneliness. It can’t expand to fill its own potential until you schedule enough time off from the day to day to get to the bottom of your own thoughts. In short, you’ve got to push past the discomfort. You have to resist the urge to reach out to someone and spend time truly alone with your vision. It deserves your full attention. Over the last few years, the number of resources available over the internet has skyrocketed. Today, we have access to amazing amounts of knowledge that can catapult us to the forefront of any field we want to lead. We can snap our fingers and make magic happen. There is no reason to do anything less than your best work. There is no reason to sit in your cave and wait for the world to stop changing. It’s time to make something happen. There is no excuse. School is supposed to teach you new skills, challenge what you think, and prepare you for the road ahead. Church is supposed to immerse you in a community of supporters, advocate for a specific faith-based worldview, and help you make sense of what it all means. Which one are you at? Are you sure? Poor people have something they don’t want to lose: their entire lives. When you’re one paycheck away from losing everything you have, the wolves at the door are whole lot more menacing. When you take a chance, even by going to school or applying to a new job, you feel as if you are literally risking everything. This, in turn, makes the poverty you know appealing. You have enough to eat, enough to put a roof over your head, and enough to get by. When one of the alternatives is worse than the bad situation you’re already in, taking risks just seems crazy. But the security of poverty is an illusion. It’s a way of making yourself happy with the things you already have at the cost of the things you might have. You can’t. Even if you think you know it all, you’re going to miss the fine nuances that required your presence at the meeting. Sometimes you don’t really have a choice. You’ve got other stuff on your brain, and the meeting you’re stuck in is 99% wasted time. But don’t think that you can stop paying attention and still catch that last 1% that matters. I’ve killed my share of grandmothers. Not intentionally, of course, but such is the life of a teacher. Every time we give a test or assign a paper, we doom a legion of the elderly to untimely, unfortunate deaths. I think the saddest part about the tales of woe students bring me is how transparent and unnecessary they are. The reality is that they aren’t ready. That’s fine. It’s not a crime to need a bit more time to being a project together. So ask for more time. Be honest about it. Tell your teacher or boss that you didn’t quite get to the end of the road on this particular project. Just do us both a favor and spare me the story. |
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Copyright © 2012 Mark Truman - All Rights Reserved |
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