Hey happy new year!
I got a book a while back and with the new year here it popped back into my mind. Figured I’d share a little something. Its called QUITTER. Its by Jon Acuff.
The whole first chapter talks about how our generation (mid 20′s-30′s) and how many of us look at quitting our jobs to follow dreams as being heroic. The co-worker who runs off to blog full time or travel as a photographer or records an album… “man oh man they have it made! Gah! So couragous!” And we think, “Ah man, thats gonna be me next.”As we so enviously watch them gather up their belongings and walk out those double doors for the last time without even a glance back. Its so funny, and so true, at least in my rounds.
John’s got some amazing points in the first chapter and I think it sets the rest of the book up great because it psychs you up like crazy although he remains focused on wisdom and the fact that just dropping your job while you jump off a cliff isn’t the greatest idea if you can’t yet fly.
But anyways, he goes into some words about how our WHY, our CALLING, our DREAMS get subtly lost along the way because of various reasons … and that we need to recover these dreams. The crazy thing is that many of us float for years searching out new things, trying to discover our CALLING but all along its actually something that we already had a taste of and maybe that taste was when we were children, maybe in high school, maybe it was a year ago but either way. It’s there to be recovered, not necessarily discovered.
There’s this small part I’ll quote for you that hit me pretty hard because it speaks to where I’ve been at creatively for the last few years . Just before he writes this quote hetells you how he was working on a book and his wife read the first chapter, she said it was well written and amazing but told him… “John, it’s all lies…” Taken back by her response he then goes on;
“I wasn’t writing the book I wanted to write. I was writing the book I thought I should write. I was sitting down and trying to copy the writing of other authors. I was writing Donald Miller’s book or Tim Ferriss’ book.
Why?
Because I had discounted my dream. I was afraid to give credence to those often frightening feelings that come with wanting something fervently.”
Huge realization happened for me. Somehow in fear of my own self, in fear of what God set in my heart Ive come to fear my very own dreams! Along with that I just didn’t know where my youthful courage went and was at a loss to say the least. At that point you really start questioning everything, when you realize your motives have been skewed you realize you don’t even know yourself. Thats a weird feeling.
Any of us who create, we’ve been creating since we were little ones, right? You ask a class full of 5 year olds who’s an artist and every single one of them will raise their hand, you ask the same question every two years and they start dropping like flys. Art is personal, its sacred, it puts us in a vulnerable place and as we grow up we build walls around our hearts as we seek affirmation from peers. If we see others getting affirmed for something then we’ll tend to copy that. The thing is that this leaves our friends, our loved ones, the world missing out on what could have been life changing to us and them if we had only believed our individual dreams long enough to confidently share. Each of our perspectives have been shaped differently by years of life and experience, we have amazing things to share and our spirits are full of creation. We need to create and give from our very own hearts. Yah?
What are your thoughts? Drop some comments if you have a sec!
-Jarrod
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