One More Newsletter...

People keep emailing me - begging me not to stop. It's awesome - and humbling.

In truth, I get to today and the pull of writing an article is too strong to resist. I'd be lost without having to do it.

Also, many of you have asked for a tiny extension to the December Digital Disposal, for whatever reason. Okay, go here for a (final!) chance to get what you need.

THIS WEEK'S ARTICLE:

The Search 2

Rob Parnell

If you could have anything you wanted - what would that be?

If the world conspired to grant all your wishes and desires, would that make you happy?

Perhaps - for a week, or a month, but what then?

If anything was possible, what would you WANT to spend your time doing?

What would make you feel fulfilled?

I like that word - it describes what it represents. Full filled. Filled to the max with - what? Satisfaction? Pride perhaps? Enriched to overflowing with a sense of purpose?

Of course, all of us are going to be uniquely enriched by different things. That's the nature of humanity. Our society enables all of us to specialize because, given the size of the planet, there will always to be someone or some organization that will take care of the things you don't want to do - so that you can get on with whatever gets you going. Makes you happy, in other words.

This is not some Utopian ideal. It is written into the fabric of our economic society. You are free. To do whatever you want.

If you watch a lot of Judge Judy (as we do), you'd be forgiven for thinking that many people want to do nothing in particular - except maybe collect government benefits to sit and watch TV. But I think this a minority problem.

Not that we don't all try it out sometimes - or want to.

But most people - the majority - will eventually tell you that's not enough. Doing nothing is not particularly fulfilling. Eventually some urge to create, help or participate in some kind of activity will take over.

At worst, it may manifest in the desire to take drugs or consume alcohol - if only to make the boredom seem less tedious, fun even.

But at best, the ennui of inactivity will motivate you to get involved in something. Whether that's cutting out coupons or building space stations is down to personal preference. Some us will be fulfilled by knitting a sweater, others will want to write a book. Some will want to help others directly through charity, other may want to daydream about a cure for cancer or imagine a practical use for the Zero Point Field. It's all open to you.

No activity is a waste of time if that's what you want to spend your time doing. If that's what makes you happy.

These are the issues I've been pondering these last couple of weeks.

Because it seems to me there's one main problem with our society.

And that is that most people aren't doing what they should be.

We have this odd idea - an unspoken rule - inherited from the generation before us, that we must do either what we're told or do something that is not fulfilling, just to pay the rent.

In my version of a perfect world, everyone does exactly what they want, when they want. Some of us become lawyers or politicians because that's what we want to do but others become gardeners or paint pictures because that's the best thing they can offer to the world.

So what stops us from doing exactly what we want?

The illusion that society won't support what we really want to do.

The idea that we need a safety net.

You've heard this all your life I'm sure.

"Have something to fall back on."

But the trouble with always having something to fall back on is that you always will.

How do you truly let the universe know that you really want to do something if, in the back of your mind, there's always a safe haven, always a lesser alternative, always the safety net...

Because it's the safety net that stops you.

Not society, not peer pressure, not your family.

Because if you really need something and there's no alternative, the universe really does conspire to give you what you want.

We know this instinctively and intuitively - and yet we fight it.

We don't want to believe it's true because if it is, then we're leading empty unfulfilled lives as a choice - as a preference, spending our precious time building a seemingly secure platform for ourselves that is largely an illusion. Because what can financial security really give you when you get to a certain age and ask, "What have I done? How did I get here? Why haven't I done the things I really wanted to do?"

Always the safety net...

Look at the lives of the great and successful, whether they're actors or physicists or writers or statesmen. It's there - defining their lives: living with a disregard of the safety net.

They live as though there's no alternative reality for them - and that's my friend, how they get there.

By stepping onto that high wire and not looking down!

By listening to their gut when it says this is what I'm supposed to be doing. This is what makes my heart sing. This is what fulfills me.

We love the great and successful because they seemingly have the courage to live without the safety net.

But the reality is that the great and successful don't see it that way.

Because once you launch yourself - on purpose - into your destiny, then you realize very quickly that the safety net is an illusion. It's a societal construct designed to keep you in your place - ineffectual, docile and in a state of permanent quiet desperation.

And you know the worst part?

We do it to ourselves.

We may blame our partners, our friends, our circumstance, our society but really - it's just us, we reconcile and justify our own lives by accepting second best.

Always the safety net...

What I'm thinking now is that I have so much to say on this subject, it will have to become part of where I go from here.

In my life, my writing and in my business.

If I have any kind of integrity I must accept that perhaps it's my destiny to show the world that the true definition of success is the ability to do whatever we want, whenever we want. And that we are all successful inside - and innately happy - already...

And that all we have to do is to accept this simple idea - and spend our lives acting upon it.

Then what kind of world might we create?

rob@easywaytowrite.com
Success is My Concern
Rob Parnell's Easy Way

THIS WEEK'S QUOTE:

"Luck and strength go together. When you get lucky, you need the strength to follow through. You also need strength to wait for the luck." Mario Puzo

Previous Newsletter includes:
Article: "The Search 1"
Quote by Mario Puzo