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Let’s start with a story (read all the way to the bottom ????).
I was training in Bloomington, IN and I received an email from an “interesting person.” It was about a conference her organization was putting on. Because she was interesting I opened it…and the email was announcing the keynote speakers. I clicked on one of the links and discovered this particular speaker worked with light installations and shoes….it was her art she gave to the world.
As I read her bio I thought to myself…wow…I wish I did interesting things, like light installations involving shoes!
Then I caught myself. I was like Marianne, what the hell is wrong with you? You don’t like lights and you don’t care about shoes. Why on earth would you want to do that?
I was caught in comparison. And for a fleeting moment ready to sell my soul to learn the art of shoe light installations.
So, I made a list of all the things I found interesting…the things that keep me up all night on the googles. Here are some things I came up with.
1. Researching travel luggage (I’m a bit obsessive).
2. Taking the perfect selfie.
3. Art museums. But pop culture modern art and early American. Not other kinds of art.
4. Self help books…no matter how bad I find them interesting.
5. Cheese. In particular soft cheese. And I like to eat it on bread. Normal bread, not fancy bread.
Here’s why I telling you this…we get caught in the comparison trap. And we think we “should” find things interesting that we don’t. We want to be viewed as cultured so we try to enjoy classical music or theatre. We don’t admit we like trashy novels because we should be reading the classics. You get the point.
We think people will judge us based on our interests, so we don’t share them.
Stop that. Choose you. And choose to only give time to that which you find interesting. If you don’t want to live in a world where you make shoe light installations, don’t.
So my challenge to you…in the comments tell me one thing that interests you. There will be a surprise when I get back to America for all who participate.
