Square Peg
Second guessers unite!
35,000 semi-conscious decisions in a day.
12.75 million in a year.
Close to a billion in a lifetime.
Some small.
Breakfast. Lunch. Dinner.
Some large.
College. Job. Mate.
Some on autopilot.
Left, right, center.
For some people, this is as easy as it gets. They have a program for decision making. They can follow the flow of the river effortlessly, while the rest of us bang our rafts into the rocks on the side, threatening to capsize with every push from the stream of life.
I’m not in this group, but man do I envy them.
My group is the one that makes decisions multiple times, spinning themselves into a web of confusion, self doubt, and anxiety, that threatens to unravel the very foundation of our minds.
My group’s motto is: “Second guess, third guess, how long can we not say yes."
The title of this piece is Square Peg.
If you know the expression about a “Square peg in a round hole,” and fall into this group you know exactly what this feels like.
You know what it feels like to sit on the sidelines trying to navigate a world much different than the one you feel most comfortable in. You pound into the sides of it, forever at the fringes. You are the pieces hanging off the side.
You’re the piece that doesn’t fit.
All the doom and gloom packed into that last line though misses something very important about those fringes.
That’s where all the interesting shit happens.
This isn’t to disparage people that throw darts and nail the inner circle.
This is to inspire the people that threw their dart into the wall instead of the board, possibly cracking a picture frame, and likely bending that plastic feather on the dart when it craters to the floor.
If you go on vacation and you visit the Louvre for example, you will receive an exciting experience. It will “tick the box” so to speak, and you will likely feel satisfied that you got to go and take in some of the world’s great pieces of art.
If you’re on the fringes, not only do you hit the Louvre, but you decide that you really want to experience the Parisian art scene in its purest form, and wind your way through a network of streets that you don’t understand, get lost, and have to ask a hooker for directions in cobbled together high school French. When you find the underground art gallery, your perception is challenged by the things those people have created, and you leave Paris all together different than when you arrived.
There is a place for both of those people and there is nothing wrong with either.
The problem comes when the square peg folks start to believe that because they can’t fit into the round peg world, that they are lesser or missing something that keeps the gate locked for them.
And the root cause to that problem is that the square peg people simply won’t accept who they are and continue to try to bash their way into the round hole club.
Let me join!
Let me join!
No.
No you can’t join because you’re missing fundamental membership requirements. It’s nothing personal, you just need to start your own club.
AH HA!
Maybe that’s exactly what you need to do.
Start YOUR own business.
Start YOUR own club.
Start YOUR own life.
Stop trying to find success in someone else’s movie.
They built a world and it’s very successful.
Congratulations!
Now politely walk away and go build your own.
Cobble it together with no money, no experience, and no chance of success.
Make it dark or sunny.
Purple or green.
Hot or cold.
It doesn’t matter, just make it your own.
Stay on the fringes where it is hard, and you have to struggle more the next person.
Own that.
Interesting shit is hard.
The fringe is fun.
Enjoy every minute of your stay.
EO- Live a Life Worth Watching
