Indulge your talents

“You are all individuals”, Monty Python’s Brian said to the crowd gathered under the balcony. “Yes, we are all individuals”, they chorused up to him.

So, what makes you individual, different, distinctive? What do you look forward to doing? What would you like to do more of? Do you have clarity around these questions? It turns out that so many people do not. Which has at once surprised me, and yet, not. Not only that, but it is also my recent experience that when I say my passion is to help others find theirs, people sit up a little straighter. They lean in. They smile. There is a hint of excitement.

Now more than ever before, I believe that to spend time immersed in your passion is to live responsibly. Harnessing human capacities, ingenuity and talent, and pursuing ongoing learning is the key to our survival. As we rise up to face the challenges of our time, the ability to adapt and problem solve is paramount. And as such, the permission and prerequisite self-confidence necessary to continual exploration must be nurtured.

Within this context, to squander individual aptitudes and talents is tantamount to social and environmental negligence. To overlook potential because it is arbitrarily deemed as not important - "you won't get a real job doing that" for example, is ignorant at best and arrogant at worst. The same could be said for it being left unexplored as a result of inattention, distraction or a lack of personal effort. To ignore or overlook our talents is to dilute the possibilities and hobble our adaptive capabilities at a time when we can ill afford to do so.

It is often said that we have to save the planet. Yet, the earth has been around for almost five billion years, and it has another five billion years to run before it crashes into the sun. If we say modern humans have been around 200,000 years, and if you imagine the whole history of the earth as one year, we showed up at less than one minute to midnight on December 31. Earth herself may well conclude that humanity was not a success and that bacteria are far less trouble. So it is not so much a problem of saving the earth, but rather one of setting the right conditions that enable our survival.

To explore and devote effort to one's passions is now something that should be raised to the level of a moral obligation. I would caution those of you who view the expenditure of effort on your natural talents as an indulgence. The resistance you feel is the bit and bridle of an outdated model. A model ill-suited to our contemporary challenges and one that fails to recognise the conditions required for our continued survival.

So what is the answer? Of course, Douglas Adams knew the answer. The answer to Life the Universe and Everything, he revealed to us, was 42. But sadly, it turned out the question was wrong! For it is always the questions that matter. Not knowing, but questing. Ceaselessly and excitedly, to find out. I believe that’s the real joy and purpose of our strange journey.

And so my friends, let us go on searching. Asking. Wondering. Wondering in both senses. Wondering in wanting to know. And wondering by marvelling.