Mar 23

Mar 23 Pull the thread

If you looked at your life like it were a piece of clothing, would you see any loose threads?

I'd challenge you to pull the ones you see, and see what unravels.

There's a vast difference between following your passions and chasing your curiosities. Curiosities look a little different from passions. Every person on earth has a curiosity that draws them in, and guess what? The world needs the curiosity in you. If everyone went out, learned about the things that sparked their curiosities, gave those things back to the world, things would look a lot different.. I think world peace would probably look something like that.

I used to work 60-70 hours a week. I carried 2-3 iPhones around with me (even on dates) and was always putting out fires. It was thrilling, fast-paced, and even though pulling off the impossible daily fed the 'achiever' in me, it didn't tap my spark. It took every ounce of bandwidth I had, and yet I still felt under-utilized and unfulfilled. It was like when you see a loose little thread on your clothes and have the urge to pull it... I was dying to see what could unravel. When I finally did, those tiny little fibers wound together tight were just a curiosity, but they became the fibers of my dream job.

Not all dream jobs come with 401k’s, handsome annual salaries, and cushy hours spent in a corner office (all things I truly wanted fresh out of college). Sometimes you have to build them from a point of pure curiosity of what could happen. Day one looked like a friend needing a patch sewn onto their jacket. Day two needed a simple alteration.. Day 50, tailoring for the CMA red carpet.

All dream jobs have ups and downs. If you’re launching a business, you push yourself into turbulent waters.. alone. And you're paddling as hard as you possibly can, searching for a calm part of the river. You paddle through 60 hour work weeks, you sometimes lose your entire paddle, and every time you clear rapids you stop to assess whether there are calm waters ahead, or if you should just keep holding on for dear life and maybe holding your breath too.. just in case.

I pulled the thread and the entire thing unraveled. It's still unraveling, and I'm winding and chasing as I weave it into something completely new, balancing in a whirlwind of a dream job I had no idea would grow a demand as quickly or as voraciously as it has. I know so many creatives too terrified to pull that thread, but listen. While the threads worth pulling are harder to make into something new, you have to pull them if you want to craft something one of a kind. You can work with the threads you have, and they can become whatever you want them to be.

An unashamed curiosity is worth chasing. And just like the ones on your favorite sweater, those loose threads don’t often have much security to offer.. but they’re so worth pulling. Everyone has loose threads... Don't wait to pull yours.