While wrestling with what it is you want to do, it’s quite common to hear someone say “follow your passions.”
But maybe, you’re not ready to push all your chips in the center.
Perhaps, you should instead follow your curiosity.
Curiosity is that still small voice whispering and encouraging you to go create something or to try something you have never done before.
What’s the worst that can happen?
We have everything to gain and so little to lose with this approach.
The problem isn’t who is right or wrong, the problem is we don’t work hard enough to build bridges.
Just because we divide in one issue doesn’t mean we need to divide as human beings.
We have far more in common than we realize.
So, yes maybe you’re right and everyone else is wrong. But if you are spending your time burning bridges and building walls—what good are you sitting all by your lonesome self?
Walls are meant to be climbed. Bridges are meant to be crossed.
If you want to grow oranges, go to California.
If you want to grow potatoes, head to Idaho.
If you’re not finding the success you need for your ideas to grow, find better soil to plant seeds.
You can’t force mother nature to change its mind. No matter how hard we try, the weather is going to do what it’s going to do.
Changing external conditions is often just as futile. We can’t control all the stuff that happens to us.
The good news is, we can always control how we perceive them.
We waste far too much psychic energy wishing for the weather to change.
What if I fail?
What if there’s something better?
It turns out, having too many choices is paralyzing. With the internet and the long tail at work, we live in a sea of infinite choices.
We are free to choose.
It’s not something we are used to. And often, we end up picking the thing that we’re used to, the one according to spec. (My mom always bought this type of jam.)
Picking a jam that you don’t end up liking has little consequence. But if you are unwilling to take a chance on something that small, what makes you think you can make bigger decisions when the stakes are raised?
Most people’s instincts are not very good.
And the reason is we don’t actually trust them.
We doubt our faith before we doubt our doubts.
Online, you can access over 2,800 TED talks with a grand total of one billion views. But the magic of TED isn’t what takes place on stage for 15 minutes.
No, it’s the little conversations that happen afterwards.
That’s how ideas spread. Not all at once. Drip by drip.
It’s rare for someone to change their mind after one presentation. But if you are lucky, they will go home and read your blog or find a book on the subject.
You get a chance to influence them again.
Change is a matter of frequency and regularity.
[This summer, Pivot Adventure Co. was nominated and selected as a Community Ambassador for TEDxSaltLakeCity. Thank you for your nominations and support. Keeping making a ruckus.]
Can’t we just agree that the world is better when you are better.
That when you are performing your best, producing your greatest works and helping those around you, the world is better off for it.
It’s a gift we can give. Freely. Every day.
We can make the world a little better when we decide.
Bad health care or lack of it has killed more American artists than we can count.
This year, I took the leap as an entrepreneur. The number one question in making the decision was How do we get coverage?
By some estimates, the “gig economy” now accounts for an approximate 34% of employment in the country, and it may grow to 43% by 2020. In no way should our healthcare be tied to your job.
How many of you are working a dead-end jobs because it pays for your coverage? How many of you want to start a business but are worried about your family’s health coverage? How many of you can’t get a job that pays for coverage? How many of you are anxious or depressed in your job because it is something you have to go do, not something you get to do?
We are the most in debt, most obese, most medicated, most unhappy adult cohort in human history.
And I believe one of the reasons is because we stifle our ability to innovate, to create art. We don’t make it easy for artists and entrepreneurs to do what they do best.
Of course, there are legitimate issues with universal healthcare. (How do we pay for it? How do make sure quality care is given?) Perhaps, government is big enough, but we can surely demand government to run better.
We are in the midst of the biggest mental health crisis in human history. To answer this call, we have built Pivot Adventure Co., an eight-week adventure therapy course for teenagers designed to help them navigate through lives challenges. We are helping to save and improve lives. Fortunately, after much sacrifice and careful planning, we have been able to make this jump.
But I know way too many Artists that can’t make this leap to do the work they were meant to do. Simply because they have no answer to healthcare. It’s just too big of a chasm to overcome. And too many roll the dice each day just hoping something catastrophic doesn’t happen.
The fact is, the United States is the only highly developed nation without universal healthcare.
Each time another Artist dies because of lack of care, we need to be asking ourselves: What could have been?
The fact is, the earth was round before we discovered it. Gravity was there before Newton observed an apple falling from a tree.
The difference is now we can perceive these things.
We’re not working to discover truth, but rather, to uncover it.
Truth is the same yesterday, today and tomorrow.
Josh Allred's Blog 