Throughout my life I have always been that girl who “does everything.” A little bit of sports, a little bit of academics, a little bit of music, a little bit of quilting, sewing, knitting and crafting, a little bit of cooking and baking, a little bit of painting, drawing and sculpting, a little bit of wood working, a little bit of stone carving, a little bit of graphic design, a little bit of photography, a little bit of writing, a little bit of math. And so on, and so on. Some of my friends would complain at me: “Why are you so awesome? How can you be good at everything?!” And I would always think, “I’m not good at everything, I just do everything.” For me it’s not about being the best at any of those things, or even particularly good at them. It’s always just been about becoming someone capable of handling herself with any tools she sees fit to employ; being unlimited. That’s my ideal.
If there’s one thing that I would cite as the source of all misery, unhappiness, low self-esteem, laziness, boredom, tendencies to complain and general dissatisfaction with life, it’s this: people don’t understand the principle of becoming. People are unhappy when either a) they are so intimidated by their ideals that they never make an attempt to attain them or b) they have low enough or few enough ideals that they reach them too quickly and don’t know what to do afterwards.
It’s not to have or not have, to be or not be, it’s to become. We hear frequently the “it’s not what you have” concept. We “get” that money, beauty and fame, and all those material desirables aren’t what will make you happy. But have you ever considered that perhaps having the capability to always be perfectly generous with no effort on your part, for example, or always being able to paint the perfect painting with the flick of your wrist wouldn’t make you happy either? That’s because “it’s not what you are” either.
Markus Persson, the inventor and creator of Minecraft, recently sold his business for $2.5 billion dollars, and is living a life of luxury. However, as Markus recently admitted on Twitter, “The problem with having everything is you run out of reasons to keep trying.” I remember when the sprinter Usain Bolt ran in the Olympics for the first time. During one of his races he was so much faster than the nearest competition that he actually began to slow down near the end of the sprint, calling it quits early. Perhaps if Usain had been posting on Twitter at the end of that race he would have said, “The problem with being the best at something is you run out of reasons to keep trying.”
Other people, the ones we don’t hear about, don’t ever start to try at all because they are afraid of failure or ridicule. They get bogged down in how they perceive their current possessions and character in comparison with where they would like to be. It’s obvious now that being stuck on the bottom rung of the ladder without going anywhere wont make you happy, and neither will being stuck on the top rung of the ladder with nowhere else to go.
That’s where become comes in. Becoming isn’t so much about where you start or the end goal as it is the process of getting there. The adventure of overcoming obstacles, of making mistakes and winning small victories. When the purpose of your life is the becoming instead of the being, it doesn’t matter if you’re not perfect, if you make a mistake or if you’re not the person you want to be yet. If you can point to something you did today or yesterday or have committed plans to do tomorrow, then you are succeeding. Let me reiterate: not successful, but succeeding. Because it’s the doing, the becoming, the way you go about your life every moment, that defines who you are. Suddenly it doesn’t matter if you are the richest person in the world, but what you’re doing with the money you have. It doesn’t matter if you are likable but what you’re doing to make yourself into someone who can connect with others and make people feel good. It doesn’t even matter if you are happy right this moment, just that you know you have a purpose and you are doing everything in your power to become happier, more intelligent, more successful and more empowered.
It also means that having insane, unreachable goals like “become unlimited” is totally ok, and even helpful! Of course, “become unlimited” is a really really really big ladder made up of much smaller ladders like “learn how to make sushi” and “become an empowering mentor figure.” But with the over-arching life goal of “become unlimited,” I know that I will never get stuck at the top of a ladder with nowhere to go. And with the philosophy of “becoming is more important than being,” I know I will never get stuck at the bottom of a ladder either.
So I welcome you to “Basically Everything,” the blog about my journey of becoming unlimited. I hope to inspire you to pursue your own journey and through it, find some real, lasting happiness.
How To Make And Do Basically Everything 