Danny Brown

podcaster - author - creator

people

Forget Being More Human, Just Be People

We?ve just come out of the mass production age. For a couple of centuries, we?ve been sold the idea of mass. Of normal.

Of process.

Not surprisingly it spilled over from factories into every part of our lives.

We were told to produce lots of “a thing”, then aggressively sell it, rather than make what people want.

Told to set strict parameters around tasks, jobs, and even careers ? you can do this (tick), arrive at 8, leave at 5, with money docked for being a minute late.

We were seen as imperfect cogs in a machine. To be thrown out and replaced if we didn?t fit.

See the mindset. See where it came from?

Now we?re in a different world.

One where things are made up, like ourselves, of lots of little building blocks which can be rearranged.

One where things scale, just as humans grow.

One where sharing and connecting is encouraged ? no more ?eyes front, listen to the teacher?.

We?re beginning to learn how to be people again. Lose the hierarchy, the regime, the rules.

But many of us are stuck. We fitted that square hole. We knew where we stood.

We could fit in and outcompete the people with different ideas.

Now the playing field has been tilted, the original thinkers will win.

The people people, not the machine people.

Bring it on.

Why I Won’t Be Playing the New Year, New Me Game

It’s less than 10 days until December 31st. The end of the old year and the preamble to the new one.

A time when, traditionally, we make vows and resolutions to be “new” us in the next 12 months. You know the drill:

  • lose weight,
  • stop smoking/drinking,
  • eat less junk food,
  • work out more.

All good goals. All good things to try and do, regardless of the time of year.

But to say “this will be the new me” says the old, or existing, you is no longer relevant, and out-of-date.

And that’s bullshit.

We get suckered into believing we need to be a new us to be the “us” we’re meant to be.

Like having a smaller waist, or a bigger bicep, will suddenly make the things that are “wrong” with us go away.

Because, in truth, why should they go away in the first place?

New Year

Our flaws. Our faults. Our broken promises. Our failures.

Every one of them is who we are. Every one of them is what we use to do better. Be better. Live better.

If we don’t have our flaws, we don’t have measuring sticks on how far we’ve come.

And, unless we want to stagnate breathing the same air forever, we need to know where we’ve been to see how far we still need to go.

So, forget the “new me” mantra. Go with something that’s real.

Something that’s you.

By all means, improve you. Grow you. Revisit you. Remould you.

But don’t lose the quintessential you in chasing something that’s neither shiny or new when the light of the new sun breaks in 2017.

It’s a sales push by marketers and retailers and corporations who tell you, “The old you sucks, and you suck for accepting it.“

But they don’t know the first thing about you. Fuck ’em, and all their lies.

You’re just fine the way you are. You just need to work on realizing that.

Here’s to you, and your wonderful, imperfect self in 2017. Slainte.

Why Do We Continue to Be So Unoriginal?

People are hungry creatures by nature.?Hungry to be liked; hungry to be loved; hungry to be respected; hungry to be successful.

That?s good. Without hunger, we have no drive. Without drive, we have no goals. Without goals, we have no yardstick to base our success on. And so the circle comes back around.

The problem is, people are more often than not getting speed hungry. They want the like, the love, the respect and the success yesterday.

So they buy the success books; the audio tapes; the DVD?s.

They read the blogs; they buy the products; the courses; the Rome-in-a-Day guides.

And they sit in their rooms; their offices; their backyards; and prepare to be liked. Loved. Respected. Successful.

And then fall flat on their face when nothing works, and they?ve just built the world?s most useless library of hard copy and digital memorabilia.

Why It Doesn?t Work

The problem is, they?ve just jumped in feet first and expected someone else?s success to work for them.

For someone else?s strategy to work for them.

For someone else?s words, speeches, elevator pitches, etc, to work for them.

But it won?t. And doesn?t. At least not wholesale.

memories-1

Because much like our fingerprints, we?re all different.

We all have different ways of approaching things. Of speaking to people. Of presenting ourselves, and the products, services and knowledge that we have to offer.

So the wholesale approach of taking everything from someone else and applying it to you trips you up, and all you have to show for it is less space on your bookshelf.

The Non-Original Approach to Originality

People are successful for a reason. They?ve taken someone else?s formula, or success, or failings, and stripped it down.

They?ve ejected the parts that aren?t for them, and reassembled the remaining parts into a map for their next steps.

This is what you need to do too.

There?s?no such thing as real originality?anymore ? but there are ways for you to?be originally non-original. Others have already done the hard work for you ? use it.

You can be a success ? just not on someone else?s terms.

Take the best of?what?s relevant for you?and refocus into?what?s best for you?to move forward, on your own terms and with a structured map in place.

We?re all hungry. We just need to make sure the food?s right?for us.

You can do that. Can?t you?