The Only Superpower You Ever Need is Listening to Yourself
I was absolutely miserable.
But I also knew how to meditate.
So I had no problem managing my emotions and keeping myself just calm and content enough to get through the days.
There was no real reason for my misery.
I was lucky to have a decent job and be living in a nice apartment in the buzzing city of Barcelona.
For a long time, I looked to others for reassurance that everything was fine and I was just being ungrateful and silly.
That made me feel better, for a while.
But the misery only got stronger.
The point arrived where I couldn’t take it anymore.
I dropped the life I was trying to build and took my friend up on his offer to join him on a one-way flight to Mexico.
Looking back, I could've never imagined where this decision could have led.
One year on, I've gone from working a dead-end job and living on my own in Barcelona to owning and running a dream business in Mexico City and living with my new partner and her two kids.
(Gasp from my past self)
If I only listened to the advice of others and rejected my feelings as the mere restlessness of a young guy, I would likely still be miserable.
Thankfully, there have been many similar times in my life when I’ve heard the call of intuition as a faint feeling of something not being quite right.
Instead of ignoring such signs, I’ve learned to distinguish them from the noise, turn up their volume, and make them a guiding light for my life.
Beating a Dead?Horse
I’m not a fan of this phrase, but it carries a potent message.
Several times a week, I’m working on something or having a discussion that’s going nowhere but into the ground.
Nevertheless, I still can’t drop it for the life of me.
I’m beating or flogging a dead horse.
The phrase has several origins. The one that makes the most sense to me is how a jockey uses a whip to hit the horse and get them running faster.
Putting aside the cruelty of this for a moment, you can imagine a jockey hitting a dead horse and thinking they could still win the race.
Noticing they’re not getting anywhere, they may even get frustrated and hit them harder and harder, only to realize the race is over and think:
Stupid horse.
It’s impossible to win when you’re beating a dead horse.
Even if you do come out on top of the pointless argument, finish the trashy piece of work, or build a life in a city that’s not for you, you lose.
Sometimes the only way of winning is to see that the path you’re on is destined for nowhere.
Nobody likes recognizing they’re riding a dead horse.
It’s admitting defeat, losing face, accepting you messed up, and biting the bullet.
When you’re not in tune with yourself, then even if you seem to be moving forward and making progress, you’re just hurtling toward nowhere.
Often the only way of moving forward is being able to turn ourselves around and go backwards.
Chasing Excellence in a Dumb?Place
I love watching people who are experts in something.
My step son just told me about the Minecraft players who are recreating the entire planet at a 1-1 scale.
I didn’t believe the little rascal?(he’s taller than me).
BuildTheEarth is a collaboration anyone can join. Over 4,000 people are working tirelessly and have already built large cities like New York City, London, Paris, and Los Angeles.
It's an absolutely incredible display of human potential.
But they’re still just playing a game.
I feel the same when watching UFC fighters.
They’re some of the most athletic and mentally strong people on the planet.
But they’re still just beating people up for money.
Each of us have a bottomless well of potential inside of us.
If we're lucky, this well gets opened out of nothing more than pure creativity, growth, and exploration.
But more often than not, this well gets harnessed and channelled toward meaningless pursuits that promise high external rewards.
We get stuck chasing excellence in a dumb place?(hopefully no UFC fighters are reading this).
We may start out on the pursuit of mastery, but the only thing we end up becoming masters of is ignoring ourselves.
Sure, some people on these paths manage to stay in tune with themselves.
But more often than not, the loud and tempting call of money and praise and status drowns out inner compass and becomes our guide.
Opening up Pandora's Box
We’re taught from a young age that it’s a bad thing to be curious and follow our instincts.
We learn that if we want to do or know anything, we should consult others first, whether it’s parents, teachers, doctors, books, or Google.
Over time, our true feelings and instincts become closed off in a box and guarded away somewhere out of sight.
Pandora’s Box is an artifact from Greek mythology that was created by Zeus along with the first woman, Pandora.
Pandora was told to never open the box. Doing so would unleash an endless source of complications and trouble into her life.
But Pandora’s curiosity and excitement to know and experience the world was so strong it got the better of her.
So she did it anyway.
In the myth, the box held all the hardships and difficulties in the world.
But it also contained the hope and ability needed to face them.
Often we’re on a path that is effortless, easy, and comfortable, and we take it as a sign we’re on the right track.
But hidden away just out of sight, there's a niggling feeling that something isn’t quite right.
Like Pandora’s box, we’re told to keep such feelings at bay as they’re evil and will do nothing but cause us trouble and may even absorb us completely.
But in order to ignore and guard away this part of ourselves, we also need to shut down and lock away our sense of curiosity and excitement.
Cracking open Pandora’s box can release a whole flood of problems and difficulties into our lives.
But by opening up the box, we not only reveal the strength and tools we need to face them, we also reawaken our innate curiosity and thirst for life.
Following The Golden?Thread
We think that getting in tune with and listening to ourselves is like switching on some kind of internal GPS that screams:
GO THIS WAY NOW!
But this type of listening out for a clear and defined voice can make us deaf to hearing what’s already right in front of us.
Joseph Campbell talked about this as following The Golden Thread.
The Golden Thread is that thing in our lives that’s calling for our attention and pulling us into a labryinth of self-discovery.
It’s often not screaming at us and immediately obvious because we’re only looking out for signs of what feels good and is pleasant.
We’re not listening for the call that leads us into a dark labrynth full of demons and dead ends and trials that will test us beyond our limits.
But when stop searching so hard and take a moment to really hear ourselves, this is exactly where our internal GPS wants us to go.
Campbell called this?following your bliss.
Following the thread into the labyrinth ignites your passion and makes you feel alive — despite, at the same time, as great artists know, exposing you to the possibility of pain and heartache along the way.
Thankfully, as long as you have the slightest hold or sight of the Golden Thread, there’s no way of getting lost and following it will always lead you home.
Reveal Your Hidden Superpower
If I could have any superpower, it would be to always be in tune with myself.
It’s like the magic hat of superpowers. You can dip your hand in and come out with exactly what you need in any given moment.
But I don’t need to imagine.
The reality is, we all have this superhuman ability within us.
We just need a little bit of courage and practice to bring it out.
Cut through the noise of the modern world and find your Golden Thread.