Was listening this morning to the Tim Ferris Podcast and in that episode he interviews Kevin Kelly. It’s a fantastic interview, loads of very cool stuff in there and a highly recommend listen. Via Tim Ferris:
He [Kevin Kelly] is Senior Maverick at Wired magazine, which he co-founded in 1993. He also co-founded the All Species Foundation, a non-profit aimed at cataloging and identifying every living species on earth. In his spare time, he writes bestselling books, co-founded the Rosetta Project, which is building an archive of ALL documented human languages, and serves on the board of the Long Now Foundation. As part of the last, he’s investigating how to revive and restore endangered or extinct species, including the Wooly Mammoth.
What I recently realised is that I’d become complacent and that I’d stopped growing as a person. I’d stop changing. This realisation came out of some forced change that I had no control over. It shook me and made me look hard at myself, where previously I’d been ignoring opportunity for change. Consciously or unconsciously, I used to go through my day thinking I’m fine and there is nothing I need to change…or wanted to change. I’d closed myself off to change.
Marcus Aurelius writes;
If anyone can refute me-show me I’m making a mistake or looking at things from the wrong perspective-I’ll gladly change. It’s the truth I’m after, and the truth never harmed anyone. What harms us is to persist in self-deceit and ignorance.
Changing as a person, growing, learning, is fundamental to finding peace, happiness and to be content. The world, the creatures we share it with, life, people, the very things around you, it’s all changing, all the time. So to hold onto beliefs, routines, a way of doing things or living just because that’s how you always did it, is going to leave you feeling “out of place” or disconnected at some point. Perhaps not even knowingly, as it was with me. Anyway before I get to hippy on you let me get to the point. One of the gems I picked up from the interview was about Kevin talking about “finding what you good for”. he says:
It takes a long time to figure out what you good for.
It’s going to take your whole life to figure it out.
Figuring it out, is what your life is about.
That is what life is for, life is to figure it out.
Every part of your life, every day, is this attempt to figure this out.
And you will have different answers and directions as you go along.
So never stop learning, always be prepared to change when circumstance and reason offer the opportunity to do so.
Here is the link to the podcast, you can listen directly via this page: Tim Ferris Podcast – Kevin Kelly
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