An ounce of initiative is worth ten pounds of intention

Hannah Arendt once wrote that our only reliable property in this world is our skill and our labor power.

She was not paranoid or cynical, merely experienced.

And her words are a sobering reminder that people aren’t here to facilitate us. Nobody is going to just give us an outlet to prove how talented we are. Permission is not the prerequisite to freedom, agency is.

If we don’t create a vehicle for ourselves, then we may never accumulate enough momentum to get where we want to be.

Today is the day we start building something that allows us to make full use of our talents and abilities. Something that doesn’t insult our skills. A blank canvas on which we can project our deepest dreams, one that we stand before naked, free to create a world of joy, that creates real value for ourselves and others.

This is more than a philosophy, it is a strategy. And it’s particularly useful when we find ourselves pressed up against the wall, fighting for our lives, swimming through a sea of rejection, bleeding and bruised from battling against the unbreakable systems of the world.

In this moment, we must channel our rage creatively. We must double down on our initiative as a counterweight. Because by exerting an opposing force equivalent to the pressure we feel, we restore a greater sense of balance and stability in the system.

And recharged with energy through the direct agency of human will, we will finally be able to lay our heads on our pillows at night with the divine feeling of being flattened tired from working on our dreams.

Are you willing to accept that your agency and autonomy will bother and infuriate people?