International Infinity Day

I had not even had time to think of a subject for this post when somebody suggested Infinity Day. This seemed a good topic as International Infinity Day is the official launch date for the new expat and repatriate network: “I am a Triangle”. Knowing nothing about Infinity Day except its date 8th August I had to look it up. What I found initially sounded a little too intellectual for me: “Celebrating and promoting Philosophy and Philosophising”. I had difficulty typing those words, I’ll have still more writing about them.

However, as I read on I saw that it was Philosophy and Philosophising “for the ordinary person.” That’s beginning to sound a little more like me. Then as I researched more about the origins of the day I found out that it was conceived by a “sidewalk philosopher” — Jean-Pierre Ady Fenyo.

Jean-Pierre was once described as “The Free Advice Man” of New York City. He would sit on the sidewalk and give advice to anybody who asked for it. He has lived in dozens of countries and speaks many languages. All this life experience, this cultural awareness, and contact with people from different backgrounds must have given him vast resources to draw upon when giving people advice.

So it seems that Infinity Day is a great topic for me to write about. I am an ordinary person who writes a blog. I’ve lived and worked in many countries and speak multiple languages. Maybe not as many as Jean-Pierre, or my wife, but more than one or two. Plus the blog that I write is based on my observations of the world around me and its inhabitants. So you may be able to call me a sidewalk writer, a subway writer, or even a shrine writer (there are lots of shrines in Tokyo).

I haven’t always been a writer, had you asked me as a child then I would I have told you that I hated writing. Being dyslexic certainly didn’t help back then. But as I’ve matured so I’ve found my interest increasing. Eventually I got to the point when I wanted to start sharing my writing. I spend months writing and editing the first 3 articles, and even more time looking at blog spaces and blog themes. I planned out a detailed blog schedule — agonising over the exact order of the posts. I wanted my blog to be perfect, but this desire for perfection was preventing me from publishing at all.

This went on for two years until finally the pressure that had built up inside me was too great to be contained. Eventually, like a dam bursting, I got my blog setup and my first post published all in one evening. Defiantly that first post was about how striving for perfection can prevent action. I used myself and my lack of progress on my blog as a case in point, so setting the tone of using myself in many of my following posts. During those first two months I published every other day, never finding myself lost for inspiration.

Looking back almost one and a half years later I now realise that I wasn’t being totally honest with myself. Or more likely, I wasn’t able to see it then? Perfection was certainly one of the delaying factors, but it wasn’t the only one. Two others were:

• Fear,
• Self-doubt

Fear about putting my opinion “out there” — this would open me up to ridicule.

Self-doubt because who was I to be giving advice to people? What were my qualifications, my credentials? I have a degree, yes, but it’s in Engineering and us engineers are not known for being philosophical. We normally like breaking things.

What I am, however, is observant. When I was younger, my observations came out as humour — finding the “funny” in situations and in what people said. As I’ve grown up so has the way I use my observations. These days I am much more likely to be found writing these observations down and shaping them with some previous experience that I’ve had banked in my memory. Crafting them into something that makes sense to me, and luckily to the people who read my blog. Moving countries has opened me up to different perspectives on the world. Observing different cultures has given me little windows into the local communities. I’ve tried seeing the world through their eyes.

Soaking up all of these observations and experiences has kind of turned me into a blog philosopher. My expat lifestyle has given me an ever increasing “life observation database”. I now have more confidence to put my writing out there.

I’m telling you all this about myself because I’m trying to inspire you. I want you to go and do something that you’ve been wanting to for a while. To go chase after that dream that you thought was slipping away from you. Nobody else has the power to do it for you — you have to do it for yourself. If I can make myself into a writer then you can make it too. My world has expanded since I started publishing my writing — how could yours?

I leave you with a quote rather timely supplied to me by Sir Richard Branson in one of his blog posts:

Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one’s courage. — Anaïs Nin

Life is all about conquering your fears and charting your own course. I was courageous enough to start publishing my blog and it has expanded my life. I wonder if Jean-Pierre ever gave out this advice? I kind of hope so.

AUTHOR: DAVID VEITCH

I am an expat who has lived in 5 different countries on 3 different continents. I am the husband of a wonderful lady and the father of two delightful, trilingual children. I currently live in Tokyo from where I started my blog (www.davidveitchblog.wordpress.com). Here I write about my expat experiences, personal development, and many other topics that take my fancy. I enjoy running, walking, photography, and writing. I find these a great way to get to know a new place and they often inspire new blog posts.