Does Opportunity knock? Or do we?

I’m beginning to think that you are born with the most extraordinary potential.. and that in part the futility of life strips you of this potential bit by bit. This is an extremely depressing statement for someone as generally happy as it’s possible to be. Yet, whilst pondering the 3rd of my life that I have already got through (judging from current expectancies) I begin to think that not only could I have achieved more but that there are many people who probably feel the same way. I definitely know a couple…

So if this is the case is it circumstance that gets us more? Do you really just have to be in the right place at the right time? My experience so far leads me to think that is helps an awful lot. Opportunity seems to me to be something that you can only influence mildly. Although I’m sure the Richard Branson’s of this world would tell me otherwise.

I have of course noticed that trend where the outspoken of this world seem to get themselves “opportunities” slightly more than others. The trouble with this is that really genuine opportunities don’t appear to be affected by this approach. You can’t work your way into the right position to take advantage of an opportunity you notice.. but by taking that one, you almost certainly miss out on another. Perhaps the one you missed might have been more rewarding in the long term. I guess this is the point where most readers think I’m going to harp on about fate, or discuss the possibility of a pre determined path in life. I’m not… because I believe life is indeed what you make of it. Is that a contradiction? Well no, it isn’t.

So how do you make sure that you are going to have lived the life that you wanted? How can you put in place the kind of safeguards that prevent you from having all kinds of general mishaps in life. The honest-to-your mother truth (rather than god as I’m sure he doesn’t need your honesty if he is real) is that you can’t. There’s absolutely no way. What we really are trying to do with our 9-5, monthly wages, consume-a-lot approach to the world is guarantee a bit of a smoother ride. We don’t conform to the “Mr and Mrs Jones” way of life to ensure success. Problem for me is that this is a somewhat blinkered view. Why try to prevent the problems being problems? They are going to happen regardless. I suppose we do it for security. Predicting the future is impossible, planning for it isn’t. So do we minimise the risk of something untoward happening by being mundane? By conforming to the social stereotypes that we are labelled with.

My point here is that this country wide act of “toeing the line” possibly minimises the randomness and frequency of the events that are going to occur to us. In turn, this potentially minimises the number of events that are to provide us with opportunity.

Everybody knows one. There’s a person in your life who is slightly wacky. A bit of a zany character that somehow seems to stumble upon some truly incredible opportunities. It’s that thing that they are doing that is different to us. The lack of planning. The increased spontaneity in their life. They just “do” and avoid being hedged in by the continual repetition of events that make up the “secure” life that everyone else leads. I don’t feel hard done by that these people get these opportunities and I may not. It the fact that I feel this way that makes most of my days easier and makes them a little harder for other people.

Opportunity becomes very relative when talking about where people have come from and where they have got to. Ol’ Branson for instance, was hardly the poorest boy in Britain as a child. Besides… when I was younger I remember feeling I’d witnessed something unjust happening to me. I remember saying to my Dad:

“Dad… that’s not fair!”

My extremely wise Father then turned to me and said:

”Well life’s not fair.”

Food Glorious Food!

What an extraordinary thing! There can be few areas of our lives where there is truly something that can provide such an endless depth of desire and pleasure. Endless combinations of intrigue and delight. The disastrous counter edge to this thought is the immutable fact that only a select number of us have the privilege of ever encountering this feeling. There are many in this world who have never felt the burning desire for a snickers bar or the endless enjoyment of a bunch of grapes. This certainly leaves a nasty taste in my mouth. How about you?

Think of the countless number of times you have had the pleasure of mixing flavour combinations in your mouth. From succulent steak and peppercorn sauce to cheese and biscuits. Where you have trouble finding the feeling from this sentence just substitute whichever foodstuff most tickles your fancy and you’ll know exactly what I mean.

You may have sat for what seems like endless hours in front of the television, as I know I have, and been confronted with many adverts depicting starving adults and children in the far off lands of the third world. But this problem is not something that lies purely in foreign lands. It’s a domestic issue as well. Many humans line the streets of London in constant hunger. Facing a battle to become part of normal society as the red tape that prevents them getting back on their feet is in place. Doubtless you’ve felt, as I have, that many of these people could have the capacity to help themselves further. However there lies an uneasiness behind the idea of this. The reality being that if you struggle to find the very basic things in life, you cannot hope to progress. People in this position would have been better off in the wild. Fending for themselves amongst endless miles of vegetation. The possibility of sustenance just a forage away. The streets of our city’s no longer possess the ability to provide these. They are colder, bleaker and harder. I could write about this for many hours.. but I have a clearly defined weekly schedule to stick to. A weekend to organise and people who I am responsible for. I suppose I possess just as many powers as you to alter this worldwide issue. But there always seems to be a reason why we don’t do it.

For us to change the way in which we provide the planet’s population with food we must first find a way to operate in harmony with our planet. Evidently our energy consumption has become something of legend and I can only hope that in generations to come people will write their owns personal memoirs about the wasteful nature of the early years of the 3rd millennium AD. I live in hope that the discovery of a worldwide energy source will be the way in which we continue to thrive but within our means and as a collective and not as the East, West, North and South. Divides which in their very titles exist. We clearly are one planet, but no one ever talks about us like that.

In my mind the answer to the worlds energy problems lies in the sun. It is of course where all energy on this planet stems from and where the focus of our efforts lies. If, and hopefully when, this change occurs it’s name will bear the title of the chemical reaction that occurs deep in the heart of the sun. Fusion.

Gathering momentum under this discovery, governments will have the ability to make decisions around transportation that were previously thought impossible. Ships, planes, trains and Trucks of goods will be transported to the corners of our planet with only so much of a care over the health of the drivers and crews. By which point it is entirely possible that these craft will be manned by none other than robots and Artificial intelligence. Capable of deciphering and navigating the tricky pathways through this world they will find their destinations.

OK. So I sound like some crazy prophet who has a reliance on a one dream to provide the answer to the worlds current issues. The problem with not being reliant on this is that I can foresee no other conclusion, and the promise of the word Fusion bears an absolutely massive consequence. A world without the need for care of consumption of energy. I will be forced to pay a fee that relates only directly to the infrastructure for providing it… and this will increase only in line with inflation. That is of course unless someone can think of a way in which I will pay… naturally, they will.

So with the ability to forget the burdens of energy consumption, where will our social lives be driven? Our business lives will be no different as there will always be a need for trade but what about the way in which we see our lives? Surely there will be a larger focus on the spiritual side of our lives. By this I don’t mean the nature of religion but more the central happiness of humanity. With less of a focus on the technology that we require to provide these things we will be forced into action to create better lives. Thoughts that may end up providing a solution to the starvation of millions and the homeless and impoverished. An attention to detail as yet unrivalled in the human race and the ability to actually persue it en masse. As a collective.

The tiniest grain of wheat will have gone from being insignificant to many to significant to most. Perhaps then our ability to change the world lies in our attention to detail.

I suppose the realities of my thoughts are some many decades off yet. They may well be realised… but I will not be around to witness them. I can still dream of all people in this world having the benefit of a marvellous taste sensation. We could all be brought together by the endless enjoyment of a bunch of grapes. It’s certainly a possibility.

On that note I should go and get some lunch. Whilst I eat I shall think of what I am depriving myself in order to conform to society’s idea of the perfect man. What a luxury to have.

It’s important, isn't it?

I’ve recently heard that a good friend of mine has had some bad news regarding his parents. I don’t need to go into detail about what this is but the result is that I have been forced to look at the way in which people address their lives and how they classify issues and actions of importance to them.

As a consequence of this news there have been many conversations I have noticed recently about people’s cares in this world and my new found clarity of thought on them has had a genuinely profound affect on me. The things that really matter to you are obviously relative. Some people have particularly serious ties to their work and some their family. I suppose it is really how your values are mentally indoctrinated that affect how you feel, and that in turn ultimately decides how important something is to you.

It comes as quite a surprise to me then that some peoples approach to their values is skewed from what I would consider to be the norm. I have decided that this is not driven by a set of real emotional values that they have come to rely on but actually driven by what is the perceived importance of something, the social perception. A social perception that something is important to your peers or team dynamic, rather than an emotional perception which is important to you personally.

A “veil” of importance is drawn over things inside of a social environment, especially in a business context. This does not relate purely to work but for examples sake it’s easier to use something most people can relate to. For instance, any one of us may have to creep around at work displaying what are the “correct” behaviours to succeed in your job or be just that little bit louder in the lifts to ensure that a member of senior management hears about a piece of work you are doing, which has proven to work out “with great results”. However once an emotional driver, something that makes you react personally, enters this mixture you immediately begin to re-evaluate. Suddenly you notice that the boss is no longer even noticeable in the lift, the work you have to do is an after thought and the struggle for acceptance into the upper echelons of the company you work for is irrelevant. So puerile in it’s conception as an idea that any child in a playground could achieve the desired result.

Take the following example. A man walks out of his job without asking anyone senior to him for permission. He has clearly defined, extremely tight deadlines to meet. However upon further investigation it appears his wife has been in an accident and no matter the nature of his work he has evaluated the importance of the scenario and taken what he considers to be the best course of action. He has changed his values in that split second decision. To change your values based on an emotional reaction however is something that has a real driving force. A powerful decision that is a combination of desire to achieve the resolution to the problem and the emotional payback from seeking it out. To know you are doing something to feed it, or help it develop, positively or negatively, shows just how important it truly is to you.

As an example this has an importance so vast by comparison to the social perception that no information relating to it is of any consequence except for that which can be seen to directly address the issue. This for me is true importance. Truly valuable thought that matters to you personally. The result of dealing with these feelings is an almost physical reaction. One of such impact that it causes you to react with many different emotions, one of which can definitely be a satisfaction that you have valuably contributed.

Personally the resulting feeling about this is that I have an increased empathy for people’s personal situations. I also have found that I take more notice of the things that aren’t important to me at this moment, but would be emotionally of importance to me if an event was to take place that drove them. This might take shape as a personal loss or a friend in a bad situation. For me the feeling that something is different is evident and it’s a good change, an enlightenment.

There is obviously conflict which can arise between making these decisions. When you have to make a decision which might affect your career and upset a family member this can be noticed. Call time on your friends to appease the your wife or girlfriend but as a consequence of this have a better relationship with her for the next few days. These two examples show the blurred line between the two areas of social and emotional importance. Where in the first you are choosing to affect your career to help yourself for personal benefit and in the second to improve the relationship you have with your partner. Seemingly for her benefit. The interesting part is where you try to decipher who’s benefit the choice is ultimately for. Here there lies a balance and the key to getting it right lies mostly in human experience. To be able to make a judgement call when these decisions arise could provide you with a technique for improving the quality of your day to day life, and the lives of those who have contact with you.

In my opinion being capable of defining something of true importance to yourself can only result in a positive result. You will either learn to react to these decisions more proactively in future or be more aware of the things in your life that bear greater meaning to you. To practice it could be a way of ensuring that you cope better with life’s larger issues and at the same time don’t neglect it’s small ones. From calling the right heart specialist to get a thorough check up right down to sending someone important a postcard. This will drive an emotional response in the people it affects. You will have wide reaching influence. It has consequences.

If I can leave you with anything from reading this then it would be to just have a quick look at the most important thing to you right now. If that activity or feeling isn’t directly related to what you may now consider to have be an “emotional importance” then maybe you should pick up the telephone and talk to someone that does.

Me however, I’m going to go home and watch the football... I mean, it’s important, isn’t it?…

…Only when I call someone I care about to discuss it afterwards.

Moving Up... and maybe Out?

"It appears to me that humans have almost no perception of their surroundings" This is the line that exits my mouth as I look at the horizon in mild shock from half way up this very tall building. We don’t seem to have a grasp of what is truly means to create a landscape. There is obviously no comparison to be drawn with the way in which we create and the beauty of nature but is there not at least some kind of happy middle ground?

It’s evident that even with the greatest will in the world functionality will always seem to get the better of originality, beauty or form. The endless concrete jungles in which we live seem to have desecrated the lands around us. The act of paving our way through the lush green has absolutely no end point and there is also no turning back. The removal of each tiny blade of grass seems as irrelevant in the face of our almost viral concrete insurgence as the very thought of what has been lost. As a race we’ve no sense of our surroundings. Humans will occupy whatever four metre squared space they can find and quickly fill it with all the luscious furniture the Swedish manufacturing trade can invent. I suppose this disproves my theory that we are unaware of our surroundings entirely then. Astonishing.

I have little in the way of defence for my own behaviours when it comes to this. I spend longer in the IKEA kitchen utensil department than any other man on earth.. of course that’s only once I have already purchased my 5th and 6th bedside table at what can only be seen as an irresistible £9.99. How could I possibly live without them! The point I’m getting round to making here is that I don’t feel any more of a sense of duty to be the driver of this change than you do. It seems like it would take an effort of purely monumental proportions to get each of us into the mindset that we truly are destroying the worlds beauty with no way back. Soon we will all be buying what remaining 4 species of tree there are in our garden centres to fill our roof terraces with. Perhaps we’ll do this with the sole intention of meeting council regulations to be involved in the production of oxygen. The one objective of this being that we provide enough so that we might continue our relentless consumption of this planet.

I would therefore like to make a pact with all future occupiers of planets capable of supporting human life. Lets not get the next one so badly wrong eh.

Perception or Deception

The perception that we have options is incredible. It’s truly relative. So many people are under the expectation that they are obliged to be employed but the truth of the matter is that we are only employable so long as we are useful. Something which is becoming increasingly apparent in the current climate. Faced with the prospect of being made redundant do you find your hairs on your neck twitching? Standing to attention and saying “I cannot possibly lose my job right now.. it will destroy all of the good work that I have done getting here in the first place.” I only ask this because my hairs are not standing to attention but listening with quiet anticipation. Is it possible that in the safety of my job I currently wonder whether I might feel free given the option to abandon my duties? Given the option to fly away? Surely I cannot allow myself to have such irresponsible thoughts. Surely to allow myself to forget my duty to my career and ambitions would be not only wasteful but extremely fanciful and careless. That would be the case of course if my ambitions had anything to do with my job. They clearly don’t. I mean, I have ambition to be successful in the peculiar modernist corporate meaning of the word, but it’s just institutional. It’s not real. I can’t taste, touch or feel my benefit to the world by achieving this.

It’s hardly surprising then that so many of us end our 30’s with the view that we are but cogs in the financial machine or soldiers in the industrial system and this drives us to break out. Mid life crisis is not actually a crisis. It’s where we understand that we aren’t living the life we want but the life that we have somehow come to understand as the best possible route. It’s a period of realisation where we come to understand that from the second we are forced to take the same exam as all the other children that we are all somehow governed by the same understanding that we will never excel or exceed. Never be more than the system, conforming to it to ensure that we have a benchmark against which to measure ourselves. It’s ironic that the same system should be the one that taught me how to best express myself on this subject.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m not lost. I’m still very much finding myself. I think the majority of us will still be finding ourselves for years. Perhaps that will be the case until we end up moving into real adulthood. This I define as the area in which we start the real nesting period. The bit with a large gardened house and fluffy animals are purchased at a rate of knots that was previously thought impossible by the human race. When cots and prams become your daily concern rather than yoga mats, gyms bags and emails.

So is it not the case that the idea of the nesting period is itself a best possible route? A design for life that is preconceived and that we should have it done by a certain time or date. This is obviously more the case for women than it is for men as Dr Bloggs has made sure we all understand the female of the species is to be impregnated no later than the 31st day of December the year of her 31st birthday. Peculiar that is should not be more aligned to the idea that a man and a woman have got themselves perfectly ready to have a child. But then… what’s ready?

I grant myself the free expression of this page to dictate to the world that the above paragraph is not only totally clear and accurate but to deny it is to suggest that I am of no right mind. That I am in fact in no way experienced enough a human to write this sort of information down and have it judged by any who I deem worthy to read it. Not that me deeming them worthy is some kind of accolade it isn’t. The funny thing is I guess I’m closer than I’ve ever been to feeling like I might get involved in the nesting bit… but at the same time wondering if it might be just another thing that interferes with me achieving my ambitions. Bit like my job really. Just in the way isn’t it.

So who truly has their ambitions fleshed out. A clear defining line between what they want and don’t. The clarity of mind to determine who and what is required to be with you to share, enjoy or contribute to the completion of these ambitions. Write down what you want from the next week, then year and then 20 years and after each of those write down the same list again. Would they be the same?

So how do we know how it will be defined then. The answer I think is that it defines itself mostly. You don’t control it so much as it controls you. You can travel away from it, you can square up to it, you can attack fiercely but the only predetermined outcome of it is it will happen. So what is it exactly? It is the exam that you never thought you needed to take.

There are only a few things in this life that I have already found out. But one of life’s truly inexplicable truth’s is that no matter how hard you try to alter it, it’ll get you in the end. It getting you doesn’t have to be a bad thing, you just have to be aware that it will.