Not everything that we do will be brilliant, we are not a machine, we are a human being and we will make some fuck ups. In fact, the more we do not care and the more we let go of fear, the more fuck ups we will make as we will be doing more.
Doing something requires a risk, stepping out of the safe middle of the circle where everyone else is and going to the edges or outside the circle entirely and into the wilderness.
This requires bravery, a willingness to say to ourselves ‘this might not work’.
However, if we want to create our dreams and do something that really matters to us and others, then we have to be prepared to go outside the circle where it is scary.
In life, if we really want it, then we have to build it.
Of course, we can dream about it, think about it, and plan it. However, at some point, we have to take the plunge and actually build it, whatever ‘it’ is.
Think, talking, planning and conceptual things are cheap and easy. However, the real work starts when we have to turn those things into reality, whether it is physically building a house or writing a book, it takes commitment.
Committing to things is a challenge as the mind will do whatever it can to minimise any risk for its pal, the Ego, and will come up with any manner of complexities, dramas, and reasons to stay safe and carry on thinking…something the mind is good at and loves, thinking.
Sometimes we just need a simple thing or reminder to wake us up and get us into this moment now. Now is the only time we are actually alive, it is the only moment of real life, in fact, our entire life consists of now. Therefore, we can only build something now and that requires us to be conscious, awake and aware of this moment, so that we can focus our energies on the doing, instead of the conceptual.
Naturally, as an artist, I have a brightly decorated and coloured skull on my desk as my reminder that at some point, I do not know when, that’s what I’ll be, a skeleton. By the way, It’s not a real skull, it’s made of polystyrene. Well, actually it should be a jar of dust, as that is the destiny for all of the 8 billion humans alive today at some time in the next 50-100 years or less. The point is it will happen, so stop thinking and start creating. Build your dream NOW!
Philip Dodson 