Hearing Voices

One ought to hold on to one’s heart;
for if one lets go, one soon loses control of the head too.
— Friedrich Nietzsche

This is what I want you do to. The next time you’re at the office, I want you to stop listen in on your colleagues. I want you to eavesdrop on a conversation that you’re not part of. It can be a couple people discussing a project or having a meeting, or it can be just one side of a phone call.

I want you to listen in on what their talking about and what’s being. Pay attention to the words and the vocabulary. Listen to the vernacular and all the “action items.”

Then, I want you to think back to your childhood, when you were young and there was nothing but possibility ahead of you. Now, I want you to ask yourself if you ever thought this is where you’d end up. Did you ever imagine that this is what you’d end up doing with your life?

When we’re young, and there’s nothing but possibility, we have ideals. Our hearts are filled with love and hope and dreams. But somehow, somewhere along the way, we lose touch with that. Life happens, we get distracted by coping, and we lose sight of the bigger picture and all the beauty within it. We become vain and start seeing only what’s in it for ourselves.

I’m not into fashion, but I am into advertising (even though I never thought I’d be), and one of my favorite lines comes from one of Kenneth Cole’s ad campaigns: “Today is not a dress rehearsal.”

This is it, ladies and gents. We get only one shot at this. We are what we do, so we better make the most of it because there are no reset buttons or second chances.