Why do we quit our greatness?
What did you use to dream of as a kid? What were the stories (lies) that you used to tell all the “cool” kids on the playground?
When we’re young, we’re chalked full of crazy dreams, big ideas, with no fear holding us back, no “what if people think I’m crazy” thoughts. You just decided at 7 years old that you were going to be a Dolphin trainer at Sea World. And if you really think about it, everyone just agreed with you!
Your parents didn’t say “be realistic” and your friends didn’t laugh at you…mostly because they were focused on their dream of being a veterinarian saving hamsters and shit. Why as kids do we all choose animal professions? Haha Is this true? Did you come up with an animal profession?
But then as you get older and go through the school system your dreams of being a Dolphin trainer slowly sound more and more ridiculous. You realize the dumb story you used to tell the “cool kids” on the playground about how you have a pet dolphin that lives at your aunt’s house in an above-ground pool because she has a waay bigger backyard than you do so that’s why your friends can’t come over to pet it. Do actually sound crazy.
Who knows why, maybe its the teacher whose miserable and tells you that you’re dumb over and over again, or maybe its because we see our parents living a normal corporate life miserably living in Groundhogs day with no joy besides bills, sports, occasional BBQ’s where other miserable adults gather and talk about bills, how they can’t catch a break and how boring their job is.
Both scenarios apply to me by the way. I was a shitty student, in detention every single day, got expelled for telling my math teacher off (still stand by my decision by the way, he was an insecure miserable in denial Dick), and my mom was single, worked a typical 9-5 and I was in after school and summer, and winter break, and spring break, and every fucking holiday daycare until 6 pm. Even as a kid I was calling Bullshit on adults. No wonder I was considered a “troubled kid.”
But if you really think about it, it’s not entirely the teacher's or your parent’s fault for compromising their dreams and taking the safe route. It’s the norm in our society. It’s so much the norm that most people believe that it’s the only option. They don’t even fathom stepping out of the box to do anything worthwhile because then they will expose themselves to the greatest human fear…the fear of being rejected by society. Or worse…failing.
So they settle for second best, and they never fully enjoy what they do in life. (side note: I remember my mom randomly always wearing two different colored high heels to work, she would be rushing getting us 3 kids out the door and dropped off at all different schools thanks to our age gap, and then would half way get to work and have to turn around because she had one blue high heel and one black high heel. Then freaking out because she was going to be late. That is one core memory that made me decide I never was going to work corporate. Who the hell wants to get dressed up every day to go sit in a cubicle?)
We’re sold this lie of safety if you do what you’re told, get the corporate job, stay in the box, and don’t dare venture out. And what does it really get you?
You end up living a mediocre life, doing a mediocre job, collect your mediocre paycheck. Get a couple of sick days, and do it all over again for about 50 or so years.
FUCK THAT SHIT.
What if we started to believe in ourselves just a teenie tiny bit and did one thing that got us closer to our dreams, one thing that brings us closer to joy? Wouldn’t that little thing completely transform your outlook on life?
Imagine this, you are still working your 9-5 wearing mismatched blue and black high heels, but your only doing it because you convinced your mind that it is to pay for your Dolphin training courses at night school. Your day job now gives you the cash to spend on a fancy wetsuit with a dolphin emblem sewn on it, and a shiny ass Shamu whistle…plus it pays the bills. #winning
That would COMPLETELY transform the way you show up, right?! Instead of just showing up day by day, you’re actually excited to show up because now that boring shit is going towards your overall joy and goals in life versus what society pressured you to do to be a good citizen. And it makes you overall a happier human being. #winning again.
Even with all that said, most won’t do it because imagine if you told your miserable corporate adult friends at the weekend BBQ that you are going to night school to be a Dolphin trainer.
Yup. you guessed it…being rejected by society.
