We’re Not That Important

Whenever I go to the beach and stare out into the ocean I am reminded of just how small and insignificant I am.  There’s something so powerful about looking out and the whole horizon is water.  That combined with listening to how powerful the waves sound crashing onto the beach just makes me feel so small.  

On a recent family trip to the beach in South Alabama, I got this same feeling staring out at the horizon of water and I had a unique thought, “It doesn’t matter who doesn’t like you.  None of us is that important!”

It wasn’t a moment of nihilism like, ‘Nothing matters.  What’s the point of anything…’  It was definitely more of a moment of freedom.  As I mentioned in the last post, I’m working on becoming a certified personal trainer and seeking out opportunities to do motivational speaking again.  So much of what I have struggled with in past attempts at these endeavors is spending too much time worried about the thoughts and opinions of others.  Specifically, I want to be seen a certain way but, in focusing on that self centered desire, I end up hesitant in doing the actual work of helping people improve their lives.  I get self conscious, I self censor, I hold back, etc.  Staring out into the ocean I just felt like ‘Travis, you are not that important and neither are they… just work… the work is important…’  

It reminds me of an idea I once heard to describe scientific breakthroughs.  We often associate scientific breakthroughs to one person as if all of their efforts were completely disconnected from the actions of others in the same field.  Scientific breakthroughs are just as much the result of monotonous busy work in labs that happened in the decades prior, as they are the result of the one scientist who notices a unique trend in the data from all those previously run lab procedures.  The cumulative work of many is what leads to the breakthroughs that we often associate with one person.

Similarly, the ocean is reminding me that I don’t matter, the work I do, does matter.  It also doesn’t matter if I become super popular or financially successful.  What matters is that I work to push the world forward so that positive breakthroughs happen for people and culture, at some future point that is not in my control.  The challenge for myself as I move forward is to not get bogged down with self consciousness as I try to sell my services… not get bogged down because someone feels that I’m charging too much… not get bogged down because someone makes an ugly comment on one of my videos… None of that matters because I don’t matter.  The work matters, getting better at it matters, and helping humanity move forward matters.  My life is just an infinitely small piece of that continuum and it does me no good to spend time worrying about who doesn’t like me or whether or not I’m embarrassed or whether or not my ideas are perfect.  All of this slows down the work of getting better and the work is what matters.

To say this another way…

If getting bogged down on how I think other people perceive me is stopping me from doing something that I value and has the potential to help others, then maybe it’s time to stop thinking that I’m so important that other people spend that much time thinking about me.  

The work is what matters and, if something is stopping me from working, then I need to get it out of the way.

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