Many of us have adopted such negative connotations around work and what it feels like that it takes a certain dedication and commitment to regain respect for one's natural talents. Failure to do so, however, risks having one's greatest assets minimized and attempts to employ them limited to the status of a hobby. It is important to resist treating one's passion, that thing you do as easily as breathing, like common currency and all attempts to use it as secondary endeavors.
Learn to see whatever else already knows. Nietzsche implores us to become who we are. Too often adults push away or blatantly ignore gifts they have been demonstrating in some form or fashion since childhood. I learned recently from my mother that I began speaking at nine months of age, short sentences at one year. Is it any wonder I write and communicate for a living? I've been immersed in personal development work since I was 18, but it took me until I was nearly 43 years old and the insistence of my husband to look at this squarely in the eye. While I certainly enjoyed the playground of my mind and its endless stream of ideas, I had nearly mastered the art of stopping just short of full acknowledgement of what I most wanted to dedicate myself to.
Dedication to the one thing you hold most dear is a fearsome thing. I suspect many of you know exactly what I'm talking about. The risks of failure can be devastating to consider. Jumping from creative game to creative game is far more entertaining and the psychic cost of any failed experiment is effectively minimized in such pursuits. I suggest to you that the alternative is far worse, however. The alternative is that you never truly show up at all.
I'll leave you with Martha Graham who said it so beautifully:
“There is a vitality, a life force, a quickening that is translated through you into action, and there is only one of you in all time, this expression is unique, and if you block it, it will never exist through any other medium; and be lost.”
Article comments
1 - alessandro nicolo
Great thoughts. Couldn't agree more. I decided to become who I am at 33. It's easy to regret not seeing it earlier - especially with instability at its height.
2 - Laura Young
Well, if it's any consolation, Alessandro, you may be ahead of the curve. I know many people who are just asking themselves the question of "So who am I really?" in a serious way when they are in their 40s and 50s. We joke a lot about people needing to find themselves, but it's true, it's very hard to get a clear view of ourselves. And we get such varied reflections back from our relationships across our different roles, it can be like living in a house of mirrors.