In order to BE we must first DO

I was travelling on a tightly packed bus from Georgia’s capital Tbilisi, to the mountainous region, Kakheti, when something caught my eye to the right of my peripheral.

It was a beautifully crafted piece of jewellery: daintily studded in blue, red and white stones, but it's stature, anything but dainty. The design seemed Aztec-like and reminded me of something tribal warriors would wear to battle.

Proudly adorned by this piece on his left wrist, was its' owner, an Israeli man named Remy. ?He looked much like a regular man in his 50s, but this piece signalled he had a story to tell.?

Captivated by its beauty, I had to ask about the bracelet. It’s not often you see a man of his demeanour wearing such an epic piece of jewellery. He immediately turned to face me, lit up by my enquiry:

“This?” He asked, gently unclasping the weight on his wrist.?

“I picked it up at a thrift market. I’m a collector." He replied.?

“It's origins are from Mexico. Beautiful isn’t it?”.

“It's stunning”, I continued. “Wow, look at the detail in the clasp. I bet they don't make them like that anymore”.?

“Where are you from?” he asked.?

“Originally Scotland, but I live in Netherlands” I told him and returned the question.

“Jerusalem. That’s where I live and that’s where my studio is - I’m an artist. You see I collect things and turn them into art. But I travel all over - I have bought some of my favourite pieces from the Netherlands.”?

He proceeded to pull out his mobile phone and show me some wild and wonderful pieces from his own collection. Including what looked like a mannequin's leg, lit up by fairy lights and adorned in jewels. I was in awe.

Remy said people in Jerusalem come to see his pieces every day. And he often gets asked to style the homes of high-profile people, hotels & cultural centres. He later mentioned he branched out into high-end clothing design for a period.?

It didn’t matter the expression, art was his "thing".

My head was exploding. How can one be all these things? Artist, collector, interior designer, clothing designer, all at once. We are so often told to pick a career, ideally something stable and that’s the thing we stick with for the rest of our lives.?

Writer Tim Urban used the analogy of a “career tunnel”. Careers used to be quite like road tunnels, he explained. You pick your tunnel and you stay in that tunnel for the rest of your life, until you're spat out the other end into retirement.?

Sounds kind of depressing when he puts it like that, right??

You see, the world has changed a lot since careers were actually like tunnels, but have we truly shed all of this conditioning?

This man had used his creativity to pivot 4/5 times in his career and make it work. But how?

His words “I’m an artist” played over in my mind. “I have always made art in some form. I travel to feed my art”.

But which came first?

Did he first identify as an artist, then start making art? Or did he make art and the identity followed later?

That’s when it hit me. Careers aren’t created by declaring “I am a.. [insert profession]". Careers are created by first taking the action (doing the thing) and identifying as such follows.?

It seems traditional career paths (like doctor, lawyer, pharmacist, accountant) have conditioned us to think we need a piece of paper to tell us what we are and unless we have that we are not so. So what happens with all the other professions?

We are prevented from doing what we love, expressing our true nature, and turning our passions into our purpose, because we rely on something outside of ourselves - to give us the permission.?

If only we just started to do "the thing", we’d see that you must first act, and the permission (and salary) follows. No one is born a successful artist, designer, collector or anything for that matter. We must first do the thing, then do it again, again and again - until it eventually becomes "our thing".

What makes someone capable of being successful in something they love? It's their commitment to getting up every morning and doing it. Full stop.

Often, we’re discouraged from pursuing our passions because we are told they are too hard or won’t make us enough money. This generational conditioning, causes self-limiting beliefs that stop us from nurturing our innate strengths and prevent us from fulfilling our potential.

It's no surprise that many famous Olympians give birth to Olympians - we are very much conditioned by our upbringing, learned experiences and what we know to be possible.

If some people can do hard things, why can't we?

If you are interested to learn about how the 90-Day-Career Accelerator can help you realise your potential and build a career that both fulfils and supports you, get in touch for more information.