USEFUL THOUGHTS

To be accepted, to fit into society is fairly easy, most of us do it everyday.  You just have to follow a few specific rules of etiquette and you blend right in. To be hired and paid an average living wage follows the same kind of rules. If you follow a set of instructions and put the right words into your resume you have a decent chance of getting hired. But this is the same criteria they use to downsize a company?  If you fit in and do the same thing as your co-workers, you can easily be replaced.   What can you do or offer better than anyone else?

Are you different or unique in some form or fashion?  Who knows this about you?  Are you passionate about anything? We all have something that inspires us, you just need to find it and embrace it, because this is who you are. This is what makes you a unique individual. So the big question you should be asking yourself is, am I living the life I was born to live?

I’ve asked many co-workers this same question. And the quick, most common response is, I don’t know. Mind you, these people are very smart when it comes to their job, and they do it very well. Unfortunately, being passionate about something doesn’t have rules to follow and is boundless and free.  And with freedom comes criticism and sometimes ridicule.  This scares most of us and makes us uncomfortable to say the least.

Why? Because we have only been taught how to be good rule followers and know that being perfect may get you a good grade, positive reinforcement by your peers and boss,  and even get you hired at a well-paying company. The most common American goal is to be perfect  at something and fit the mold of being an A, B, or C student;  this is how you blend into the status quo and where most people find comfort. The majority of people are okay with this or feel they don’t have any other choice, and that is okay too.

Yet, some of us are trying to break free from the status quo and don’t know how. This is like wanting to learn a foreign language without an instructor. It is possible, unfortunately most people have not learned how to do this. Why? Because we’ve been taught that making mistakes and failure is associated with bad grades along with not being able to follow directions. Ultimately, not a good employee.

Unfortunately, what we are not taught in school is, most remarkable people make multiple mistakes throughout their lives, yet they seem to find how to grow and improve from these mistakes.  Somehow they have realized it is okay to stumble and fall or simply just fail at something; because the rules about  great successes, always, always comes great and multiple failures.

Embracing the rules of success starts with finding what you are passionate about.  Passion knows no bounds. It is an abyss of opportunity. It is going to be full of UPS and DOWNS, because you are creating the rules. We need to prepare and accept occasional setbacks as part of this emotional experience toward fulfilling your dream. But learn from those mistakes and never give up.

Einstein supposedly failed nearly a thousand times before he created the light bulb. And crazy as it sounds, he was motivated by trying to stop the light from burning, as oppose to trying to keep the filament burning longer. Image that. We can learn more from our mistakes than our successes. Rule followers may get decent paying jobs, however, passionate opportunity seekers, creative artists and entrepreneurs live by their own rules and create their own realities. How do you want to live and be remembered?