Don’t Dull Your Edges: Build the Life Only You Can Live

Wealth

Mulling over your regret is an easy way to become sad.
 
Think about how you can build an amazing life with action you take now. 

Relationships

I logged into Facebook for the first time in years, just trying to give away some furniture on Marketplace.
 
The first post that appeared caught my eye. 
 
A photo of a kid I hadn’t thought about in 20 years.
 
Back at school, he was undeniably different. Obsessed with dinosaurs in a way that couldn’t be ignored. Spend more than two minutes with him, and you’d know his favourite fossil and the Latin name for it too.
 
He didn’t care about being “cool.” And that came at a cost.
 
He was teased. Mocked. Bullied for being too into something no one else cared about.
 
And yet, here he was, bearded, confident, standing tall in the middle of a palaeontology dig site, celebrating a career milestone doing the exact thing he used to get bullied for.
 
The thing that got him excluded? It’s now the thing that sets him apart. To be clear, I don't know him, but I can imagine he takes a great sense of meaning and purpose from his work. 
 
This highlighted to me the danger of fitting in, you can end up burying the very part of you that would’ve set you free.
 
We spend so much time trying not to be weird. Not to stand out. But that same weirdness, the thing that made you feel different… is probably the thing you’re supposed to lean into.
 
If you dull your edges just to blend in, you risk becoming invisible. You then become unrecognisable, even to yourself.
 
What feels like punishment when you first have the courage to stand out and go a different way from the masses can become a superpower later, if you don’t let it get beaten out of you.
 
Does the world need more people who are palatable?
 
Or does it need more people who are real and unafraid to be themselves?
 
Stay strange. Stay sharp. The right people will find you. And when they do, they’ll love you for exactly who you are.

Freedom

"Somewhere in the future, your older self is watching you through memories. Whether it's with regret or nostalgia depends on what you do now." - Gurwinder Bhogal
 
Journal prompt:
What would future you want you to do today? What actions would you take?