A friend of mine is resisting transformation. He studied his favorite subject for a long time. He read books, magazines, blogs, went to seminars, did online training, follows experts on social media, writes a blog, told family, friends, colleagues, and foreigners about his ideas, and still doesn’t get his foot on the ground. At least he thinks that.
I agree, he is lacking clarity.
Bint al-bayt ‚awra
Arabic saying
Arnander und Skipwith erklären dieses arabische Sprichwort folgendermaßen: „Die Tochter des Hauses ist einäugig.“ Besser bekannt als das englische Sprichwort „The grass is greener on the other side“.
My friend won the impression, that he stills needs to figure out more until he can start his transformation. He believes that he needs to work a full-time day job and work on his own project as a side-hustle. At the same time, he questions if he should swap jobs.
And if he does so, he will postpone his project even further.
Es ist wirklich eine Sache der Klarheit. Wenn er wüsste, wie er von A nach E kommt, bin ich mir ziemlich sicher, dass er sich voll reinhängen würde. Und obwohl er weiß, dass es ihm an Klarheit fehlt, ist er nicht strebsam genug, um Hilfe zu bitten.
What is this thing with eagerness?
Merriam-Webster writes that the essential meaning of eagerness is being very excited and interested. Eager is marked by enthusiastic or impatient desire or interest. Synonyms are avid, keen, anxious, athirst.
I know my friend’s mood swings up and down lately. He has had higher energy levels before which also resulted in enthusiasm and excitement for his project. What can he do to be in high energy levels more often again?
For some reason, he is resisting change instead of embracing it.
He could drop the wish to have clarity all along and embrace uncertainty. Uncertainty opens a lot of space for creativity. That is something that he loves. Once he lets go of control, he manages to get into the flow. In that state, he comes up with plenty of ideas. They seem to flow out of the pen and onto the paper. Watching him write and smile brings joy to me.
Maybe it would help him to understand that everything has its time. There’s time to take care of the soil, there’s the time to sow, there’s the time to wait that the soil takes care of the seed. It is not at him to let the seed grow. The soil takes care of that. The plant grows bit by bit. Also then everything has its own time. One by one. He can water the soil and take care of the plants as they grow. One day he will be able to see the beautiful results.
The cycle is the same. The time frame isn’t. Planting seeds is rather fast. Some projects take years to take off.
My suggestion is to do more of what he really enjoys. Especially at this time of the year. Since there is a lot of darkness, everything that lights up the mood is welcome.
Ich schlage vor, draußen aktiv zu sein, egal ob es Tag oder Nacht ist, gesunde, leckere und energiespendende Mahlzeiten zu essen, Veranstaltungen wie Livemusik, Kunstausstellungen oder Treffen mit Freunden zu genießen. Er kann an Orten arbeiten, die ihm gut tun. Ja, natürlich alles verbunden mit Covid-Sicherheitsmaßnahmen. Ich bin optimistisch, dass es ihm helfen wird, wieder auf die Beine zu kommen, wenn er sich mehr engagiert. Er ist in der Lage, jederzeit auf ein höheres Energieniveau aufzusteigen!
My dear friend, choose action and embrace uncertainty.
Do what it takes.
Be excited!
