116. fit within the world

When we grow up, we’re taught to see the world as it is and the best way to proceed is to find a life that fits within the world. Try not to be too disruptive or make too much noise, but feel free to move things around if you need to, just don’t mark up the walls set in place before you arrived. Follow the rules. Go to school. Get an education to qualify you for a job that allows you to fit within the confines of what most people call acceptable. And in no time you’ll have the life you never knew you wanted! This approach might work for some, but for other’s it limits the opportunity that life can offer. Happiness, love, fulfillment, success shouldn’t be defined for you, they should be defined by you.

Life can be much broader and more fulfilling, as Steve Job’s put it, “once you discover the fact that everything around you that you call life was made by people no smarter than you.” You have the power to break down the walls that aren’t serving you and change your place in the world. 

Like a fish, we are often the last to realize we are swimming in a massive sea of ideas, beliefs, and practices. Some are beautiful, while others are frighteningly normal. Likewise, we’re often blind to the fact act the path laid out before us — the narrative we’re implored to follow — is simply a collection of agreed upon thoughts of all those who came before us. They took no input on how you or I would want to captain our lives, yet all their ideas completely saturate and influence the entirely of our lives. So, if the path you’re walking isn’t fully your own, don’t be afraid to question the direction you’re going because you ultimately have the power to change it.