From colour to Greyscale.

I am known as someone who is doing a lot at once. I love playing guitar, writing music, collecting and writing about wristwatches, building communities and networking with amazing people to learn. I am always learning something new and exciting, but since I was a child, I’ve heard that this is a very negative trait and that I should “pick a lane.” Here is why I think that’s a load of garbage.

When we are young, not sitting still is terrible behaviour and questioning everything is bad manners. I have always struggled with focusing on things that were of disinterest to me. In all honesty, I just let my brain take me where it wants to go. I let my mind and thoughts go into the dusty, niche parts of hobbies where no one else goes because unique and different always interests me. As I got older, I realized that I lacked the aspiration to live a “perfect” life or be similar to the generation before mine. That doesn’t mean I don’t want a home to call my own or everything else that comes with stability. I want to take a journey to get a “perfect life” from other means instead of your standard 9-5.

Let's take this into an outside perspective. Children are so carefree, always having fun, laughing, and smiling, and this flame of overall purity and happiness is always with them. Still, as we get older, our priorities shift, and a world full of colour, curiosity, and whimsey drifts away. All that remains are memories and nostalgia of a more uncomplicated, fun, and exciting time. What bothers me the most is that many of us have accepted that as life. We go from one side of the spectrum as young, carefree and with unlimited colours on our palette to older, working full-time, surrounded by everything dull and greyscale. The economic structure of our world today is vastly different compared to 30 or 40 years ago; therefore, we have expectations and the ideations of how life should be and haven’t learned the realization of an always and forever changing of our economy. These changes apply pressure to all persons involved and create stress and anxiety because of a false presumption of how the world and life work, causing people not to take risks and “play it safe” with whatever they do in their lives.

Does it have to be this way forever? We all have passions, but most of us are scared to fail. We should find ways to do them. Life is too short to live around fear or thoughts of a life we once lived. Nothing is out of reach if you want it. Set the bar high with your goals and standards, but keep it to a realistic expectation. You're not going to succeed overnight, and many people aren’t willing to put in the years of effort to get to that point due to the craving for instant gratification. If you want something, go for it. Work a 9-5 to fund what your dream is and start building, but you have to put in the time.

A quote by Steve Vai that I use in every aspect of my life has helped me immensely; “If you change the way you look at something, whatever you’re looking at will change. The level of achievement that we have at anything is a true reflection of how well we can focus on our goals. Instead of constantly focusing on flaws and what should be worked on, step out of that mindset and cultivate your strengths.”

Circling back around to the start of this article, I am known as someone doing a lot at once. My brain had found the same naive sense of enjoyment in the hobbies I am regularly involved in, similar to how life made me feel when I was younger. The world has so many opportunities for you to question why things work a certain way or why certain things exist. Don’t be scared to ask those questions and start a journey for yourself. At the end of those paths is happiness, success or failure. Make your inner child happy again. You will feel so much better about life.