Can You Create Your Life?
Can you create your life? How much do you control your lifestyle and how much of it just ‘happens’ to you?
I guess I believe you can because I know people who lead amazingly interesting and rewarding lives. (I confess I frequently watch Sunday Arts with envy because it always showcases talented artists who are doing what they love and somehow deriving success and income from that…)
I know I’ve written about this in religious terms before (predestination versus free will), but I wanted to think about it more practically. I pulled out my notebook and wondered if I could have my life the way I wanted, what would that look like?
I identified the following desires:
- The desire to be creative. There are things I want to do and other things I want to do more frequently. And I want to learn, I want to study… I want supportive teachers and mentors.
- The desire to be social. I’m lonely. I think my trip to Brisbane made me appreciate just how lonely. I am connected with the world and I can have great conversations and exchange ideas with lots of people at any hour of the day or night, but I still have no one here I can grab a cup of coffee with.
- The desire for independence and freedom and distance. I don’t feel like I can be myself here. I am too busy fulfilling roles within different contexts.
- The desire of companionship. This differs from the social desire mentioned earlier in the sense that here I am referring an intimate companion, a lover, a partner…
There were a lot of other things on the notebook page too about scheduling (my Sunday afternoon coffee ritual, for example) and specific things I want (video camera, my own apartment).
I guess the next step is building towards those things… somehow.
I hate to bang this drum too much (especially because it’s a choice that would involve risk), but of those four things there is one (creativity) that you’re just as likely to find wherever you are, and three that you are very unlikely to find in Nowra.
I think life happens to us, but we create how we live it. Sometimes we need help, or a push, to be able to create constructively, but generally speaking, we’re the ones who chose how we deal with everything life brings, good, bad or neutral.
And of course, you know the next sentence I am going to utter? Yes you do John:
Move to Brisbane dude.
I saw an interesting talk on creativity that you might enjoy: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=86x-u-tz0MA
Hi Daniel,
This personal blog is about whatever is on my mind at any moment in time, though over at JohnLacey.com I do actually write specifically about creativity… (I’ve actually already posted Elizabeth Gilbert’s TED talk there back in April.) But I appreciate you sharing things with me as you find them.