Life Is Too Short Not to Spend It Doing Your “Something”

Lessons learned from a TEDx talk and a tragic discovery

Photo by Austin Chan on Unsplash

I’ve been changing. I’m overhauling my habits, working towards entrepreneurship, and trying to make something of my life.

This elusive “something”: the unlocking of potential, the job you love, the life you want. It has to exist, I’ve seen it work out for others, but making it happen for myself is a whole different ballgame.

In case you’re wondering, one of my new habits is watching educational content rather than Netflix. Over dinner one night, I watched Scott Dinsmore’s TEDx Talk called “How to find work you love,” in a bid to discover my “something.”

Scott Dinsmore oozes charm and charisma during his talk. He’s funny, bright, and interesting. He tells us to become “self experts,” and work out who we are and what we value, to figure out what we want to do. We must surround ourselves with people who inspire and uplift us, and who embody our own aspirations.

I found myself thinking about the talk late into the night. I thought about how I could take action and apply Scott’s advice. I decided to look him up, to see what else he’d been up to, and where I could learn more.

Then I saw the articles: Scott sadly passed away in 2015 aged 33.

Days later, I was still thinking about the upsetting discovery that Scott is no longer here.

I didn’t know this man, and I had only seen him in one video, but he struck me as being so alive. I realized I had been acting as if I would never run out of time, and I could just keep putting things off another day, or month, or year.

Upon reflection, Scott’s untimely passing made me realize two things:

1. I have no control over the passing of time. Life is short.
2. I do have control over how I choose to spend my time. My life is mine.

And just like that, I felt something I’d lost for a while: potential. I understood the possibility of filling my time how I choose to, right now, without trying to hit snooze while I figure out how to get to where I want to be. The way you do what you want to do is simply by doing it.

“What is the work you can’t not do? Discover that, live it, not just for you, but for everybody around you, because that is what starts to change the world. “

— Scott Dinsmore

So, I decided to get on with it. I’ve been writing every day, doing yoga, and reading books by people that inspire me. One of these books is James Clear’s Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones.

(A quick side-note — I didn’t realize that James Clear was a good friend of Scott Dinsmore, and he wrote a touching tribute here, back when Scott passed away.)

Early on in the Atomic Habits book, Clear argues that we should focus on ‘identity-based habits’ — namely, we shouldn’t set goals and outcomes to be skinny, or quit smoking. Instead, we must shift our beliefs, and change how we identify: “I am not a smoker”, or “I am a healthy person”.

“It’s one thing to say I’m the type of person who wants this. It’s something very different to say I’m the type of person who is this.” — James Clear

The truth is (and it is a hard truth), the only person standing in your way is you.

As both Scott Dinsmore and James Clear have alluded to, only you can do this work. It’s up to you to decide who you no longer want to be, and who you are now. Nobody else can tell you what your passion is. The person in charge of your life, no matter how long or short or turbulent it may be, is you.

I always thought I’d get where I want to be when the timing was right. Well, the timing may never be right. You never know what might happen in a month, or a year, or a decade. So make it happen now.

Do you sometimes have moments of revelation like this, and then days later you realize you’ve elapsed into your old ways of thinking?

I have, too. The New Year’s resolutions, the diets, the journalling, the habit trackers. It is so easy to make goals to try and be the better versions of ourselves that we know are just lurking below the surface.

Not this time. My anti-revelation is this: you already are that person. You just need to allow yourself to be that person.

You want to be a writer? Write, and you are a writer.

You want to be a yogi? Do yoga, and you are a yogi.

You want to be an entrepreneur? Brainstorm some ideas, start writing a business plan, and you are an entrepreneur.

It really is that simple. Be the person you want to be, and it isn’t possible to give up, because you are just being who you are.

So, who are you?