Develop That Gift!
Once the interest is there, the aptitude can be developed. And it feels like play.
The question is not why so many don’t, because the answer is obvious; the question is how will you prioritize your interest.
So many people get caught up in consumerism, addictions, habits that distract them from the pain of having made decisions that don’t suit them at all and to suppress the nagging feeling that they have listened to opinions that are at odds with what they had always loved and had attention for. They even buried their interest, thinking it is childish, or doesn’t make income, therefore has no practical value to an adult, or will repel a mate — an excuse grave enough to the individual to block the path of curiosity and what was natural to the psyche.
Then, they are surprised by a midlife crisis, by the sense that there is no joy to their existence, that their life force is fragile or barely there, by painful and troubling revelations about their time management or the “cruelty of fate”, or even by the sudden shock that others live a colourful life full of meaning, juice and thrill, do make an income from their interests and have supportive spouses.
They didn’t know how to make their own interest a priority, and erroneously concluded that it wasn’t worth paving a way for it.
Everything that makes you come alive is worth doing. If you do it badly, you will learn how to get better at it. But not doing it, because others have very limited perceptions of who you ought to be to fit their “film” (their narcissism, their hidden envy, their dull and formulaic views about life that they themselves hardly adhere to, their prejudice — nothing flattering nor feel-good to discover here), or to fit their depressions and lack of courage, that is a big mistake, my friends.
Free yourself from the concepts of those who are not mindful. Look to those who are opening more and more space for their interest — and adopt them as your mentors.
18 December 2018
