In day to day life I hear people talk about what’s ‘normal’ or ‘realistic’. I’ve had conversations like ‘I’d like to leave my job and set up a new venture within the next year, but let’s be realistic that can’t really happen.’ ‘What I’d really like to do is work for two days a week, earn a decent income and spend the rest of my time with my family and learning Salsa, but let’s face it that’s ridiculous.’ ‘What I’d really love to do is move to Hollywood for three months and try my hand at acting but let’s face it I’m 33 and probably way too over the hill, also it is so abnormal and ridiculous I’d look like such a fool.’ (The last one is mine.)
We live within a system of systems where some things are deemed possible or realistic and other things are deemed ridiculous.
I know on the one hand having systems helps us to communicate, to co-exist, to grow. But many of our systems are left so unchallenged that they end up being ‘the way things should be.’
Organisations that operate in a 9-5 system, with little time for reflection, wellbeing or mindfulness are seen as normal. Organisations that focus on paper work and ticking boxes and doing things the way they have been done for the past twenty years are seen as normal. Work being hard is seen as normal. Retiring at 65 is seen as normal. Going on two week holidays is seen as normal. Buying a house is seen as normal. Getting married is seen as normal. Working for money is seen as normal.
But just like me becoming an actress in Hollywood is made up, so once was the idea that most of society would work between the hours of 9 and 5. The concept of working for money is made up. The process of exchanging money for a house is made up…
Everything is made up.
And if everything is made up then surely, that means, that anything is possible.
Let’s turn the ‘ridiculous’ into the new normal.
Much love, Hannah
*Image by Ahmet Yalcinkaya www.unsplash.com