Recently I attended a fun workshop event run by Dave Evans of Designing Your Life. After speaking about the nature of human possibility and how we need not be set in thinking our life can only go in one direction, he asked us to imagine our lives in three different ways.
What could we do if we didn’t stay where we are? If we did something wild?
Our answers didn’t have to reference career- they could encompass the whole of our lives, both professional and personal, work and family.
As I tried to think outside the box, per his instructions, I found myself stuck in “becoming a thing” categories. (My categorization, not his.)
That is, I found myself writing things like: I could become a florist, and open a flower shop. Or, I could be a barista, and open a coffee shop. {Since no one in my group happened to write “bungee jumping” or “arctic exploring”, I didn’t feel too bad about how “wild” my ideas seemed…}
But after leaving the event, I began to wonder. Why did I write “become a florist”? I don’t really want to go through the training and open a shop and hire staff and make sure my refrigerators are serviced regularly. But I did work at a florist in my university years, and I did really enjoy it. And what I enjoyed about it was the flowers themselves: being surrounded by them, creating something beautiful with them, using them to help others to mark significant occasions, be they happy or sad.
One of the main points of the Designing Your Life workshop was to get us to think outside the box, and that’s exactly what happened. Because what occurred to me is that I don’t have to become a florist to spend more time around flowers. To create beautiful bouquets. To help people celebrate their special days.
I don’t have to become the thing to do the thing. I can just do the thing.
Our culture often forces us to think in neat categories: She’s an x, therefore, she does x.
She’s a lawyer, therefore she practices law. He’s a chef, therefore he cooks. She’s a writer, therefore she writes.
But can’t a lawyer take great joy in cooking? Can’t a chef spend time reading historic legal cases, if that’s what he loves? (Sure, he may not be able to argue before a judge, but he can do a lot of the same activities a lawyer does.) Can’t a writer make bouquets of flowers? We needn’t be boxed in by our professions; nor boxed out by our lack thereof.
How many times do we let ourselves be held back from doing something because we don’t feel “qualified” to do it? How often do we keep ourselves from enjoying more of life, exploring more of life, because we think what we are doing is it for us?
Maybe it’s time to try something new – to not just imagine something different, but do something different – just for the fun of it, with no professional qualifications or even intent to get them.
You don’t have to become the thing to do the thing!
What kind of thing might you do if you started thinking outside the box?
