No B.S Friday: You can’t deny what you were made for.
We are all action figurines.
We make sense when we are in action.
You know what I mean by action figurines, right? They still make them, don't they?
You know, something like GI Joe. Some unnaturally buff and macho character with huge biceps and tight-fitting army fatigues.
(That's how I like to think about myself.)
But GI Joe only makes sense in an action context.
That steely eyed gaze, that iron jawed grimace, that wide legged and power stance – all of that only makes sense in the context of a battlefield.
It doesn't make sense anywhere else. GI Joe can't go to Woollies to do the shopping. He can't go into the kitchen and whip up a lovely duck curry. He can't sit on the couch and listen to you talk about how your day at the office was.
He was made for action. He was literally made for action.
In our own funny way, I think we are exactly the same. We are made for action. We only make sense when we are in action.
Obviously we make sense in a much broader array of action contexts than GI Joe does. But still we are being built for action.
You might like to think that you're built for leisure. You might like to think that you're here for consuming cheesecake and Netflix. You might like to think that you're here to lie on the beach and drink cocktails.
But I can tell you as someone who has given all of these things a red-hot go, that's not what we're here for.
Sooner or later, leisure man gets restless. He starts to feel that he lacks purpose. He starts to get bored.
Sooner or later, he starts to crave the action he was built for.
And that's not to say that he's not going to be happy unless he is on some heroic quest with bullets buzzing about his ears. Maybe what he needs to do is join the literacy program at the local community centre and teach unemployed people how to read more good.
Don't think I'm talking about stereotypical action here. I'm talking about action that comes from your soul – that helps you actualise yourself in the world.
But whatever it is, this is the action you were built for.
And I'm saying all this because I was talking to someone the other day who was saying that it felt like life was asking them to do so much. Their life was asking them to live in a constant stream of output and activity.
And what I said to them was that this is what they were built for. You're an action figurine bro.
And sure, and you've got to be able to rest and recharge your batteries. This is one of the most important disciplines there is.
I but action is what you were built for.
Your life will be pushing you – it will keep trying to expand the bandwidth of what you are capable of.
Your soul wants to be realised, and it is realised in action. All we can do is embrace it.
Such is the life of an action figurine.
JG.