Today you get the chance to start over.

Who told you that you couldn’t?

It was probably you.

At least, it’s you buying into an industrial way of thinking – education prepares you for a life of work of producing more, cheaper, then you retire.

It used to be that a good job was one that would last thirty to forty years, but this is not how it is now.  An undergraduate was telling me it’s so hard when it comes to a future job … because there are so many things she could do.  We’re in the age of growing choice.

It’s your choice to do something amazing, something no one else can do in quite the way you do.

In the classic myths, legends, and stories, the hero must get past the the gatekeeper or guardian to progress on their quest.  The guardians of who succeeds and who doesn’t are diminishing in influence.  These are the ones who have determined whose art is important and whose isn’t.  They’ve good reason to, they need to guarantee income, but that’s not the same as encouraging great art – and it’s not to say they haven’t promoted a lot of great art along the way.

Yesterday, I mentioned a small group of people who bring their knitting to a cafe.*  They may not each start up a bespoke knitting company – or they may – but they do get to work on some great designs which excite them and thrill the people they gift them to, they enjoy one another’s company and eat great cakes, and no-one down-talks another.  I sense this group could get up to some exciting things, and their enthusiasm released in this way probably spills over into their day jobs in terms of increased energy.

It doesn’t have to be a knitting group, of course, and it doesn’t have to be a group in which everyone focuses on the same thing.  The important thing is by getting together they potentially are taking out the gatekeepers.

Who told you that you couldn’t start over and begin to do something amazing today?

It’s your choice.  You can change the inner place from which you view the world and act.

And you can begin by identifying the things which energise you – really energise you.  (Write them out, and don’t let the industrial voice tell you that you can’t do these things.)  The likelihood is you can, then find others and you’ll do even more.

(*I was checking my meet-up suggestions for different subjects and themes, and lo and behold, the knitting group’s there because I clicked Hobbies and Crafts.  If there isn’t one, start one.  And if it’s in Edinburgh, I’ll come.)