PhotoCredit: Bird'sEye
En Vogue is one of those forgotten groups that should never be forgotten. Their glorious 1992 hit "Free Your Mind" says everything. EVERYTHING. There is a treatise hidden behind every line in this song. It's a solid investment of 4.14 minutes of your today.
Free Your Mind.
And The Rest Will Follow.
It's easier said than done. One of the hardest parts of starting any squiggly adventure is stepping off. Stepping into the great unknown. Be it teeny or "holy shit-balls I just quit my job", it's all the same squiggly step. The same scary squiggly step.
And before we make that step, we think we should know where we are going. We should have a grand vision. A destination at least. An idea of the future "us" that we want to be. Preferably in crystal clarity. Otherwise, well otherwise we are shifting from a place of certainty to the complete unknown. That doesn't seem especially smart?
It's smarter than you would think. In the linear modality we kid ourselves that we can plot a path to a predictable and known outcome. In the squiggly realm we understand that 'predictable and known' are illusory. They are visions of the ego that satiate us with concepts like comfort and safety. Telling us little white lies like "the paycheck is worth the misery". "You'll be happy once you can afford the house". "One more step and you'll be the boss, it will all be ok then".
The linear is controlled by the ego which doesn't want you to take risk. It's not that it doesn't want you to be happy, it's just that your ego is rather attached to your job title and doesn't quite know how to stabilize if you are <cough> unemployed.
Nothing will make you feel smaller than going to a dinner party and admitting you are between jobs.
The real truth is that you need to strut yourself down the en vogue runway in your fiercest 90's ensemble and declare yourself free. Free from what you were and free to decide who you want to be.
It's only when you let go of the vision of who you think you need to be that you will become who you MUST be.
Be expansive, be experimental and be larger than life.
Be open, be brave, be curious, be bold.
Above all, free your mind. The rest will follow.