A trap I still regularly fall into is the idea that I’m the one that needs to change. Despite my 50 years on this planet, the conventional successes I’ve had in multiple fields, as well as my own personal achievements of success I keep trying to change how I do things. Why? Because there’s a voice inside of me telling me to. That I’m (still) not good enough.
Whose voice is this? I believe it’s a combination of my father’s voice (sometimes abusive, sometimes as a “mob boss”), combined with societal influence which is a narrative of how you’re “supposed to” do things.
The thing is… that voice is bullshit.
I’m at my best when I trust my instincts and trust my processes. The more unconventional, the better.
There’s a famous business book called “What got you here won’t get you there”. I’ve never read it, but I’ve had it mentioned to me many times. My takeaway was always that I needed to be someone else. That’s exhausting.
I’ve since come to the belief that the opposite is true. You can become a student of your own self-mastery and understanding your true magic. The evidence is the life you’ve lived and that is what holds the secret for whatever is next for you.
This is also the trap of personal growth, a world I’ve been deeply involved in for many years. What if all of these tools and techniques can take you further and further away from your actual gifts? There’s always somewhere else to get “to”. What if where you’re at was perfect?
Your unconventional path and story is exactly what the world needs more of, not homogeny.
What if you’ve been undervaluing what truly makes you great, because you think nothing of it?
What parts of your story do you skim over, the most fascinating parts, without even realizing?
What if instead of waiting for a big idea you already had it?
For the last 7 years readers of my blog (including you) have been watching me own my story more and more. I’m at my most excited and energized when I do things that break conventional rules or I’m doing something for the first time. Most recently that looked like doing something audacious like pitching the event in Toronto Shermain Melton and I am putting together, but pitching it before we even knew what it was. Who does that?
Well, I do. And I did. That was fun for me, to test myself that way.
That I was willing to do that might be my greatest takeaway from this entire experience.
That’s the same expertise I utilized as Anabolic Frolic, mixing tracks together for the first time in front of thousands of people.
There’s a magic in the room when I tap into that same energy. Instead of mixing 12” records, I can do something audacious like pitch a program that I can’t even describe.
What isn’t fun is trying to conform and do things how they’re normally done. I need to do less of that in my life.
I want to remove the words “force”, “endure”, and “obligation” from my life and replace them with “energized”, and “I can’t NOT do this”.
And that is what is true for me, what would that look like for yourself?
