This blog is dedicated to finding, sharing and discussing a variety of topics around the struggles our clients and audience go through. Each episode we discuss a key concept that many humans struggle with. To give you a variety of perspectives for you to see the concept through so you can find one that makes it feel easier to deal with.
And if you prefer to listen, this episode is available as a Podcast or a Video.
Let Me Tell You A Story…
Instead of my usual blog posts with lots of information for you to read and use in your life, today I want to tell you a story. And this story is also being written / read / told live every Tuesday and Thursday at 8:30pm GMT on (hopefully!) YouTube, Facebook and LinkedIn between 12th November and 24th December. Click these links to subscribe and join us for the next instalment!
Stories have been used for centuries to share wisdom and ideas within our species. And this idea for this particular story came to me
I find stories are the best way to get a message across. It is why we like to read books, watch TV series and films. Because stories are a great way to share a message by inviting the reader / watcher / listener to be a part of the story. To become the character in their imagination.
And that’s what this story will do. It will invite you to become the main character, Morgan, and become the hero / heroine of the story!
There will 13 chapters and this will constitute the first draft of this story before I send it to publishers and become a published author. Which has always been a dream of mine! So thankyou to you for joining me and holding me to account to get this planned, written, shared, edited and finally published! Without you, I would probably let myself off the hook (like I have effectively been doing all year since the idea came to me!) and this would never get done.
So I hope you enjoy these next 13 blog posts, and if you want to send me any ideas or ask any questions to guide the story or to make it make more sense to you, then please don’t hesitate to get in touch. I look forward to hearing your thoughts, but for now let us dive straight in…
CHAPTER ONE – The Bridge
I had a dream the other night…
Not the usual kind of dream that you get when you’re a kid, you know, the kind of dream where you dream about all the things that you could become, will become. The things you really, really want in your life…
You know the usual, astronaut, Doctor, vet, tractor driver, race car driver, crocodile wrangler, mountain explorer, teacher, soldier, lawyer…
You know, that kind of fun dream.
Well my dream wasn’t fun.
Really really wasn’t fun.
But let me share it.
Picture this…
I am standing on the edge of a bridge. One of those nice, really cool metal bridges, that span over the width of a huge gorge. Rushing, cascading water at the bottom. Steep sides. Trees.
The bridge itself is green, with that sunset-coloured rust in patches. It has obviously been a few years since it was shown some love, and it could do with a lick of paint.
It’s Autumn time. So the trees are turning to their lovely orange and red and brown shades as the leaves start to fall. There is a slight wind, blowing through the struts of the bridge. I can hear the birds are calling as they fly South in V-formation for the winter. The cars driving over the bridge behind me.
People are going about their lives. Creatures are looking for their next meal or a safe place to spend the night.
And then I got the thought,
“Whats the point? Why are we here?”
Have you ever had a dream like that?
The one where all of a sudden you wake up feeling like you are falling? Like, really REALLY feeling like you are falling.
Well that was my dream the other night. But I’m not sure whether it was a dream or a future déjà vu moment. It didn’t really feel like a normal dream, it was almost like an outer body experience.
But then I had this realisation that, actually… That bridge, that falling sensation… Is one option at some point in my life, that my life could lead to.
Falling.
Jumping.
Who knows?
But that is only one outcome in this thing that we call life.
But how did I get there? And that is what I woke up feeling.
Obviously, I had to get over the oh God feeling of panic as I fell through the air! But then I was wondering why I was there.
What choices did I make to get me to that bridge?
Because I’ve come to realise something recently. Everything we do is a choice. We choose to go with the flow. Or to go against the flow. We choose yes. Or choose no. We choose burger and chips. We choose halloumi and chips, or a salad.
Its all a choice.
And it’s our choice that we get to make. No one else’s. We might think that our lives are at the mercy of others, but actually it is our choice to go along with they are telling us to do or not.
We then choose to accept that choice that has been made (and making no choice is still a choice! Whether we have gone along with the flow, or done our own thing, or whatever it is), because it was the right choice hat we could make. Or we can choose to rage against it because it was the wrong one. Or we rage against circumstances and people around us that we believe are destroying our lives and making the wrong decisions for us…
But let us step back a bit. Lets see if we can work out what is leading me to that bridge and whether I will end up on this bridge. What is the reason why I am standing on that ledge, on the wrong side of the railings, with an open expanse of nothingness between me and the very hard and life-ending rocks and rushing water at the bottom of that really steep gorge…
My name is Morgan.
The point of this story is that I am whoever you, the listener, need me to be.
I could be white, black, Hispanic, young, old, straight, bi, male, female, trans, non-binary, tall, short, thin, fat… You get to decide who I am, what I look like and fill in the gaps to make my story relevant for you, so that you can become part of this story with me.
But I will share that things aren’t great for me right now.
I have a job on the brink of becoming no job. I’m a month behind on my rent. My partner I have simply had enough of arguing about money with. I’ve got a family who push me to do things I don’t really want to do, even though those are the things I “should be doing”. You know, the 9-5 job that you hate, get married, have kids, or have more kids, get a dog, go camping… That stuff that humans seem to expect everybody else to want and seek.
I don’t want those things. I have dreams. Aspirations. Places I wanna go! But no one else so far seems to understand. They just don’t get it.
And I keep getting pulled back down to Earth with a crash.
Dreams don’t pay the rent for a start, or put food on the table. They don’t align with this model of life the world wants us each to follow, you know: School, good grades, job, work 5 days a week for weekends off and 4 weeks of holidays that you have to ask permission to take and can only take as long as no-one else wants that time (and if you are a teacher, good luck getting any time off outside of the school holidays!). And then you retire with just enough to treat the grandkids here and there, and die with hopefully enough left over to pay for your funeral, coz the family aren’t going to foot the bill! Lets be honest, they couldn’t even if they wanted to because they are in the same money-less existence you have spent your whole life in.
It doesn’t sound great does it? But that’s what we are prescribed. That’s what we are told that we should do.
And those of us who do make it big? The top one or three percent of humans that get big incomes, have comfortable lives and can do whatever the hell they like when they like it? Well, the rest of us are told to believe that they were either born into it, with a silver spoon in their mouth, or they have completely destroyed others, and trodden on others, to get to where they are today.
If we then dare to dream, “oh I could be like that person…” I could have millions of my own… But then we are labelled as selfish. Greedy. How dare we think we are better than our families, all the previous generations. How dare we think that we can rise above and earn millions… That would just make us mean and deceitful.
Really?
Is this the kind of life that we are destined to subscribe to?
To be beaten down when we dare to dream?
Can you remember when you were in the classroom? Reception, kindergarten, year one, two, maybe year three, you are allowed and encouraged to use your imagination. Then probably around year three, when you were probably aged 7… “Stop looking out of the window… Stop daydreaming… Write down what I tell you to write down…”
We then programme our children to stop thinking and using their imagination themselves…
Why?
Because that’s the way it goes. That they should be good little students and do as they’re told and get the good grades and go off into the world and do whatever blah blah blah…
I don’t subscribe to that nonsense. It just doesn’t feel right!
And if it costs me my life trying to escape it? Well, that sounds like a good life to me actually! Going in the other direction, dreaming.
But then… I do have a fairly good job. It doesn’t matter that I hate it, does it? It pays the bills and leaves me a little bit each month to maybe go for a meal out or buy some new clothes for work once in a while. Because you have to look smart to go to work.
I can take walks in the local park. And, sometimes I even manage to be able to look around rather than having to focus on the path 6 feet ahead of me to make sure I don’t tread in a pile of steaming, manky dog poo that is in the middle of the path that I won’t know that I’ve stepped in until I’ve walked it through my entire home before realising that it’s on the bottom of my shoe.
So what more is there to want than this? I have a good job, it pays the bills, I can sometimes avoid the dog poo in the park.
Maybe a few extra hundred pounds this year? That would be nice!
But, and I don’t know about you, but when I think that, within seconds I get my parents nagging finger appear on the screen of my mind, in my imagination, telling me to just do my work… Be a good little human and do your work.
Well…
I would love to Mummy! If it wasn’t so soul cripplingly boring and unfulfilling!
Argh!
I feel so torn…
Wanting to dream but am told not to.
I am told to be happy with what I have, to live within my means… Those shoes will last one more winter won’t they? Take an extra couple of pairs of sock to work to dry off and not squelch all day when it rains?
So how do the big shots make it?
Why are we told that this is our lot when there are three percent of the population who do whatever they like? Have time freedom. Financial freedom.
Have they really all been given it all on a plate?
I saw the Spotify documentary, and the other ones before Netflix put its prices up and I had to cancel my subscription. They worked damn hard to get to their success!
So why couldn’t I?
But what would I do? What talents or skills have I got to share with the world?
School taught me that I was no good at anything. Mediocre grades in most subjects, couple of top marks but those subjects “won’t get me anywhere worthwhile”. My parents then encouraged me to just get by in life without complaining. And my boss? Well, they are happy when times are good! But if there is a dip in profit the lot of us are utterly useless!
Hang on… Who made them the boss anyways? Pretty sure that it is their name on the door, so how did they start the company? Were they given it on a plate? If they built it from nothing, why are they so stressed and taking it out on us? It’s their company isn’t it? Surely they should tell us what they want to happen then assign the right people to the roles that enable the work to be done in the best way rather than just letting dear old Bob do all the work while most of the rest of the managers sit back and say “yeah, I don’t have to do anything, Bob’ll do it!”.
Everywhere has someone like that. They might not be called Bob, they might be called Angie, or Tom, or Mike, or Bella. But everywhere has one.
But what if Bob leaves tomorrow? What happens then?
Probably Sandra will take over… But then that won’t happen because Bob won’t leave. He’s there for life like I’ve been told to be! And you’ve probably been told the same and seen others who say they are there for life.
Do we even have a choice when we leave?
What if one day Bob, or even I, decided to actually leave? Would the company fold in on itself and go bust? Or would just some other Bob or Morgan fill the void?
That’s something interesting to think about don’t you think?
A very interesting idea indeed…
So why is my right ear now burning? I’m starting to get a headache… I’ve literally only just woken up. I’m lying in bed dreaming about the life I want and getting right ear burning and a headache.
Oh well. I guess I’ll just get up and get going to work… What is the time anyways?
OH NO! 8:15?? I start in 15 minutes! Dammit! Bloody daydreaming again when things need to be done! I can’t be late again this month or my pay will get docked… Stupid! So stupid!
Why do I do this to myself!?
Dammit!
Where the hell are the keys?
“Breathe Morgan! Breathe!”
Wait… Where did that voice come from?
“The keys are where they always are… Lunch is ready to go in the fridge, you made it last night remember because you are super organised, and there is a cereal bar in the cupboard. Just breathe!”
Breathe…
Teeth, shoes, door. Lets get going, nice quick walk!
And I’ve arrived just on time. Well 30 seconds to spare isn’t so bad is it? I guess there are times that living in that dank little attic close to the city centre are beneficial! Like when I am busy daydreaming instead of getting up and getting on with what I am supposed to be doing to be that perfect little human we are all expected to be.
Breathe… Now, its time to get on with my day. So what am I doing first at work today…
What Do You Think?
So what do you think? Comment below with your feedback and where you would like to see Morgan’s story go or where you think it will go! I only have a rough outline plan so far so your input could guide it in another direction…
If this story resonates with you and you want to discuss this further, then get in touch today. Either here or through any of my social medias or schedule a call to discuss it with me directly.
I look forward to speaking with you soon.
To your success,
Jaiye
PS.
Don’t forget to come and join me live if it hasn’t gone past the 24th December 2024 yet! I go live with a new chapter every Tuesday and Thursday on my Linked In, Facebook and YouTube channels and you are more than welcome to join me. Register now!
