My friend John told me something about crabs (the animal, not the STD) recently that I never knew. I heard the same thing again while listening to Darren Hardy today. Do you know how they catch crabs in the water? No? Neither did I. Let me tell you.
They lower this giant crate with a completely open top, with some bait inside. One crab will come in and start to eat the bait, then another, and another will join until there’s a lot of crabs. Even when the bait is all gone, crabs will still be coming into the trap. It gets completely packed down with crabs because they’re all doing what the others are doing. Remember the open top? If any crab tries to leave, the others will gang up on it and pull it back down. They’ll even go so far as to kill it to keep it from leaving the trap.
Then the trap gets raised and then there’s food for all.
What the what? What kind of animals do that?
But here’s the thing. That’s how it is with humans. We are just like the crabs. The only difference, as Darren Hardy said, is that crabs live in the water and humans live on land.
As creatives, we sometimes lead a different lifestyle than most people. We do things our way, and we don’t take orders from a boss – we are the boss. Only 10% of the population is their own boss. How crazy is that?! We were NOT put on this Earth to work everyday just to pay the bills. We are meant to LIVE and ENJOY our life! Why aren’t we doing that?! Why have we become so fixated on just living to make ends meet?!
We’re just like the crabs. Whenever someone does something different or outside of the norm of society, we reject them. We try to talk them out of it. We pull them down with our naysaying. It’s not what the rest of us are doing. I used to say things like that to people. But after living through it myself, I realized I never had any right to tell someone not to pursue something just because I didn’t think it could work, be sustainable, or whatever thought came to my mind. No more I say! I want to SUPPORT people who dream and DARE to live life differently.
Be the crab who tries to get away. When people try to pull you back down because you’re doing something they’re afraid of, something that is different, don’t let them pull you back down. Love them anyway.
When society tries to pull you back down with them, it says more about THEM than it does about YOU.
It doesn’t even matter what those people would say or think about what you are doing! We try so hard to get approval from other people that DON’T matter. Would they cry at your funeral? If not, they probably don’t matter. Don’t expend your energy of feeling bad or upset when they try to reject your dreams and ideas. Just love them anyway. Nothing is ever wasted by loving on people.
Do you. Do what makes you happy and passionate. Even if it fails, at least you can say you tried. You gave it your all. When people might say “I told you so” it won’t change the fact that you lived life fearlessly.
Love them anyway.
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This makes me happy. Up before the sun reading all your blog posts 🙂 Let’s teach everyone to stop being so “crabby” & cheers to you being in the 10 % soon;)