Who are you at your very core?
Your appearance, thoughts, feelings, emotions and personality are merely a shell surrounding who you are at your core.
Your shell is your self-definition: the way you define and describe yourself based on the way you have been brought up. Since you were a child, you have been building this shell based around your conditions, environments and the opinions of those who’ve had an impact on your life.
Subconsciously, each of these factors has combined and over your lifetime you’ve created a shell to ‘fit in’ with others the best that you can. You probably compare your shell with others and make changes to it to fit into situations better. Most people do.
The problem is, we’re never content with our shell because in life there’s always someone who has a better shell. And it doesn’t matter how good your shell is, there’s always going to be someone who’s better looking than you, who is smarter than you, who is more popular than you, who is funnier than you and there is sure as hell going to be someone who has more possessions than you. So as long as you’re comparing your shell to other people’s shells, you’ll never ever be satisfied.
Play along with me for a minute... Let’s imagine now that your shell is a brand new model of a Range Rover Four Wheel Drive. You’re sitting at the stoplights on a highway and you’re in the driver’s seat. You are the driver of this shell. You are feeling really good about yourself. You think, ‘Whoa, this car is awesome! It’s got that brand new smell, the seats have beautiful leather trim, the exterior looks great, it goes from 0 to 100 in six seconds!!!’ The car is perfect. You’re sitting up straight, smiling, thinking how great this all is.
Then, right along beside you drives a brand new shiny red Ferrari Enzo. You see this car pull up to you, and suddenly you sink into your seat as you realize how great the Ferrari is. ‘Whoa, that car is so much better than mine. Have a look at it, it looks amazing. Take a look at that red paint. Gee, listen to that fierce grunt the engine makes. It goes from 0 to 100 km/s in 3 seconds. It’s worth close to a million dollars; I’m only worth about $100,000.’
Suddenly, Ferrari makes you feel inferior.
If you race against that Ferrari, who’s going to win? The Ferrari, of course. You’re delusional if you think you can beat it. As long as you are on the highway, the Ferrari will always beat you.
But what if you take the four-wheel drive and the Ferrari to an off-road dirt track that has lots of potholes and steep hills. If you race the Ferrari, who’s going to win now? You are, obviously.
What if you were a Semi-Trailer and you challenged the Ferrari to a race – who would win then? The Ferrari would of course. Again, you would be delusional to think that your big truck could beat it.
But what if you put one thousand kilograms on the back of the semi-trailer and the same on the Ferrari. Who’s going to win now? You will of course.
You are the driver of your vehicle, the shell that is made up of your body and mind. But you are never going to succeed or feel fulfilled so long as you drive your vehicle on the wrong track.
If you see that shiny red Ferrari and think to yourself that you’ll never be anything like it, the truth is, no, you won’t. You’ll never shine like the Ferrari until you drive your vehicle on the right track – ‘your track’.
Thinking back to childhood once more, do you remember the students at school who were labelled the ‘dumb’ kids because they always did poorly academically? They were the ones who used to sit at the back of the class and muck around. They were terrible in Math, English, etc.. They’d always fail their tests.
But if you put these kids in a workshop or got them to use their hands, they were geniuses, artistic and creative. They weren’t dumb; they were just on the wrong track for their vehicle. They thrived once they were put into an apprentice or artistic job. They thrived when they found their right track.
And so will you. If you’re not thriving right now, it’s not because your shell isn’t good enough. It’s not because you’re not smart, good-looking, funny, or don’t have a likeable personality. It’s because of the unique traits that make you who you are don’t match the current track that you are on. You weren’t born to fit a mould.
Without taking the time to figure out exactly who you are, where you want to go and how you’re going to get there, you could spend a lot of your time blindly going after pursuits that in no way align with your strengths. The satisfaction you’re searching for will be overlooked. Spending your most precious hours chasing things that you don’t really value will fill you with deep regret as you get older.
“Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid.” —Albert Einstein
Philosophers often talk about people having their own unique genius. I think the genius that Einstein was referring to is not an innately special talent or a genetic lottery. The genius he refers to is a genius who matches their shell with the right track. Your genius has always been there, but it will only shine when you find your track.
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