Perspective
I decided I would put a few words together to sum up some of the clarity and
growth I experienced this year. One thing I knew I didn’t want to do was make a
new year’s resolution which I stopped doing years ago after I realized resolutions
can happen each day and at any given time of the year. So choosing to get into
that ideal body weight or go on that extreme hiking trip only takes the
spontaneity out of the experience and instead archives it to a timeline as
another to do item.
As of July 2016 I will have lived abroad outside the U.S for
2 years now. If you want real clarity I suggest traveling, and not just
visiting a location on a tourist route but instead staying there for a month or
2 and getting to know the locals of that region. Try taking public
transportation or simply travel on foot and explore the less commercial and
scenic routes after doing the whole tourist thing.
I would suggest doing
this both during the day and at night since you will get to see the full spectrum
of vibrancy that region has to offer. I have only lived in three different
cities in my life thus far but have traveled to several and I can attest that
each place has its own personality and the people who inhabit these regions are
the personality and character of the city. The way we interact with each other
is reflective in everything from our road ethics to the way we greet new faces
and potential friends.
As a new comer to a
region you quickly notice how this is embodied from one place to the other
depending on your own social/cultural ethics and prior hometown experiences.
Living in NZ has given me a vantage point in which I am able to see my own
country from different perspective 11k miles away. For a country that has some
of the wealthiest, most educated, and inventive people the world renowned it
pains me to see only ignorance and violence getting the most global
recognition.
We are capable of limitless feats when we come together, yet
fear dictates so much of our lives that we lose sight of this fact and cling to
familiarity closing our eyes to change and empathy. As we all know the news
stations perpetuate the negatives in order to catch subscriber and a rating
count, so as someone who grew up in this great nation I can attest that there
are a large number of amazing humans that make up the general population and I
would suggest for anyone who hasn’t visited the States to do so and be prepared
for a change in perspective.
Confidence
This year was a real accomplishment for me. A few things I
have accomplished include becoming a dad again with my second child on the way,
learning several new software’s including teaching myself how to visually
script/program in a game development engine along with forming a small
production team and creating an interactive prototype for a horror game.
I also stepped into
the online merchant’s life which has to my surprise been a success (thanks you
to all my supporters and followers) while also teaching a plethora of new
classes while juggling the new merchant/freelance projects in-between. If I had
doubted myself (which of course I did) and not made the choice to take a chance
on any of these ventures I wouldn’t be where I am today. Hell I wouldn’t even
be a father or have a wife or be living in another country had my confidence
not had a play in my decision making.
It is perfectly normal and expected to fear what you aren’t
familiar with, but belief in yourself and a hunger for opportunity and
experience are far more important since these are the benefits of a life not
wasted. Confidence and reason only work together up to a point where planning
and calculation vanish. You can and should do your best to make a decision that
yields a predictable outcome but if you aren’t willing to go beyond this foreseeable
future then you are only avoiding risk while living under the thumb of fear?
Risk is either an exciting or frightening factor in most people’s lives.
You either avoid it or embrace it, only those oblivious to
their own life’s path passively embrace risk because of their ignorance to potential
alternate outcomes. This in a way can be seen as freedom of mind so if you are
this kind of person you most likely aren’t reading this and are instead out in
the world laughing it up or living recklessly * cheers! To the rest of us who
live with the burden of reason while chasing security my advice to you is think
of that child version of yourself who learned to ride a bike knowing you could
and would fall off many time before you could confidently balance or the first
time you kissed someone you really had a connection with, or that first
freelance contract you landed with no prior experience.
Your fear might have
been present then and didn’t stop you in either scenario. I don’t have a recipe
as to how one becomes more confident, but I can say that loving what you do, while
knowing what you can do (feeling
yourself) are important factors in stepping outside doubt and fear. Take pride
in what you do no matter how small or mundane because no one else is better at
being you!
Simplicity
Brevity is & art form all its own and as artist we
sometimes lose sight of this fact as a result of our love of elaborate
expression and verbose story telling. To parrot a quote from a past friend and
coworker “its easier to dial up from simplicity then it is to dial down from
complexity” -Luis Suarez.
Simplicity is clarity, directness, principle, and instinct.
I try and clear any confusion I find myself falling into by asking myself what do I want and what do I need, because the difference between these two answers shows me how much I’m clinging to something that really isn’t adding or detracting from my ability to live freely.
Employ simplicity in your designs and you will construct the core statements that surmise your vision intent.Employ simplicity in your conversations and cut down on the Co2 emissions (joking) while getting your point across faster.
I try and clear any confusion I find myself falling into by asking myself what do I want and what do I need, because the difference between these two answers shows me how much I’m clinging to something that really isn’t adding or detracting from my ability to live freely.
Employ simplicity in your designs and you will construct the core statements that surmise your vision intent.Employ simplicity in your conversations and cut down on the Co2 emissions (joking) while getting your point across faster.
The honest truth is simplicity brings to focus what’s really important and allows us to begin transitioning beyond that point into either a lateral direction building upon that initial concept, or possibly deciphering what would seemingly be too complex to grasp.
Self
At the end of the day no two people can experience life the same way because no one will ever share the same vantage point of seeing the world through your eyes. This is a precious factor of your conscious existence.
You are both the spectator and director of your story which
is constantly being told. You owe it to yourself to create interesting chapters
in the diary of your life. Enjoy the journey but don’t delude yourself into
trying to find yourself in a noun, since you were already born whole.
The “you” and the “self” are synonymous and absolute. We
form personality and develop egos as a byproduct of our environments and social
ethics, but the child in you is still there hiding behind emotion and
intellect. Children see the world in all its beauty even the things we
disregard or treat as trivial they find amazing.
This simple
perspective of life has no bias or prejudice of one noun to the other. This
perspective is free of any concept of value worth quality or any other polarity
creating a separation in the wonder that the observer is experiencing. You can
travel the world rekindling that childhood since of awe through all your various
interactions and experiences abroad, but still as the saying goes “no matter
where you go there you are”. Freedom of the mind and ego is the greatest trip
you will ever take.
-Happy 2016 my friends!
