You think I’d crumble? You think I’d lay down and die?
One thing that’s driving me mad is the amount of passivity in the world. Why undertake the work of creating the change you want to see in your life when you can scroll and shop your way into oblivion?
It’s a theme that’s central to my speaking and writing work. According to my background I was never destined to work in corporate, own a home, run a business or get paid to write and speak on stage. That I did makes me an outlier but it was by no means an accident.
Resilience? Or something a bit different?
Typically this is framed as resilience but my thinking has been expanded thanks to ‘antifragile’ by Nassim Nicholas Taleb. It’s quite the read (I struggled with some of it and didn’t agree with it all) but what hit home was Taleb’s clear explanation that resilience isn’t enough. It’s not enough to withstand and endure, what you really want to be thinking about is how you protect yourself for the future.
According to Taleb (and I’m inclined to agree) working for a corporate is fragile. They could drop you in a hot minute. Whereas if you’re able to develop a skill (like, say, speaking and writing (ahem)) and innovate, flex and adapt at your own volition, you’re in a stronger, antifragile position. By the way, I don’t knock my time in corporate – it made me financially strong enough to pursue independence.
Drowning in a digital sea
And I get it. It’s easy to let digital waves wash over us. It would be foolish to pretend they’re not powerful. Something in us seems to like the idea that bingo and betting can take place on both sofa and toilet (even featuring in an ad before you go “ewwww”). Social media posts make us angry and sad yet we continue to scroll in search of succour. We confuse content creators for community and wonder why we still feel alone. Pharmaceutical companies tell us preventable health problems can be solved by adding their drugs to our lives rather than taking out the food, drink and behaviours that are making us ill. Unbelievably, we are being invited to tour the warehouse in Bolton or Swindon where a minimum-wage worker packed and dispatched our 3am purchase which will be delivered by someone paid not nearly enough and pressured for time.
We don’t just need resilience at a time like this. We need to find a way to wean us off being surgically attached to the digital teat at times and in ways where it really does not serve us.
So what’s a girl to do? Well, as with everything in my life I return to music.
Active listening
This Spotify playlist is my call to be Anti-Passive. Whether you want to ‘Snap Out Of It’ with Arctic Monkeys or have Ice Cube tell you ‘You Can Do It’ (he might be on about a different kind of ‘it’ but you get the meaning) I hope you enjoy it. And if you’ve got a song you’d like to add – put it in the comments below!
An anti-passive speaker!
If you like the sound of being anti-passive, and would like to explore the topic with your team, why not book me to speak?
And if you liked this post, you might also like Social Mobility and Financial Literacy where I speak about the importance of taking the time to learn how money works and its value in helping me to build future stability.
Image credit: Photo by Bayarkhuu Battulga on Unsplash
