Discussions

Had a discussion last evening with a good friend, where we were discussing the turning points of our lives. We wondered aloud exploring when that moment was and what drove it forward.

For both of us it happened around the same time catalyzed by the reading of The Power of Now. That set off a chain of events, which when we discussed it, seemed to center around shifting from a me focus to a we focus. As we continued our dive in, we went through and saw subtle changes which impacted us greatly, which brought up this question, if small shifts can be so impactful, why is it that more people don’t have them? Are they more difficult to discover? Are they unique to the individual?

Without knowing everyone, without knowing another’s mind, I’m not sure we will ever discover that. However working in advertising has taught me you can influence people (manipulate might be a better word). So I’m convinced there is a way to guide the process in which people discover things like this, and it has always been something that is in the back of my mind, how?

We then turned to discussing what it is like to grow up in a world today, where you compare yourself to your peers in a fundamentally concerning way. How would you teach your child that she doesn’t need to worry about the number of likes next to her photo, or that what she sees isn’t the full story of a person’s life? This is something I haven’t had to worry about, but when it was brought up, it’s quite concerning. As the generation who pioneered this entry into social media, shouldn’t we all take a step back and start to discuss these things? Demand more from society as a whole when it comes to how we present social and interact with it?

We also discussed the shared philosophy of living your best life. Sharing how there seem to exist fundamental truths across many religions, books, explorations, videos and thinkers. It’s something I circled back on once I was in the car on the ride home. That by opening yourself up to the process of education, you get such a diverse set of tools to work with, things to think about, ways to think about things. I really like 3Blue1Brown for that, where a lot of what he says and does is just another way to look at the same thing. In that I believe we can make things more accessible. And in that I would challenge all of us to continue to explore the same things but in different ways.

Reflecting back, it’s these moments I live for, it’s these discussions that instilled in me a desire to continue to push forward. I’m aware that this may not exist in all relationships in your life, however I would encourage the exploration, we don’t know how people think, what they think about or even what they’re curious about without expressing ourselves, therefore be emboldened to push the boundaries of what is deemed normal for conversations (we can always talk about the weather later), you just might be surprised what comes of it.