Activism and doing what you want.

My last post could have gone two ways.  I’d planned to say: rather than my current job being a destination, it could merely be another link in a chain.  Like this:

Discovering what you want to do in life is a huge thing.  It gives you something to strive for.  As I wrote my last post, I realised: no matter what 9-5 role I happen to find, I’ll always be striving towards the goal of being a fiction writer, even if I find a creative job.  I mentioned my last job was creative and tailored to me, but I was still working on my novel and stories.  The job wasn’t enough.

Then there’s the part about being an activist, about wanting to ‘change the world’.  A friend of mine asked: have I really become the activist I wanted to be?  The answer is: ‘yes and no’. 

I've never been one for camping in fields...

Yes, because I do a job for a charity doing good in this world.  I’m not one to stand on the front line, march on Westminster, camp in fields or town centres and all the rest of it; I'm as close as I wanted to get.

And no, because it's not what I wanted to do after all.  To do it ‘properly’, you have to be committed, you have to be willing to put in the extra hours.  The people I work alongside are committed, whereas often I’d rather be at home, writing.  I liked the idea of a role like the one I have, but the reality is too much of a sacrifice for me.  Maybe that’s selfish, and that’s what my last post became about.

The thing about dreams is they’re not always what they seem.  My ‘activism’ dream turned out to not be ideal after all.  But that’s okay, I can dream again.

Here’s a song I love that came to mind while I wrote this:

 ‘I always thought a man should have a dream, to pick himself up when he hits the floor.’

It may be your dream to fight the injustices in this world and that’s great, we need people like that and I will continue to be one of them.  It’s just not my life’s ambition.  (For me, I wonder if ‘activism’ is more something to aspire to in my daily life, rather than being the reason for that life...)

My advice is, if something is not your dream, don’t do it just for the sake of it.  Don’t give up chasing your dream because you think you ‘ought to’ do something else.  Keep chasing, keep searching.  Be whatever it is you, and only you, can be.

And again, I'm gonna plug Don Miller's post: 'Two words that kill passion.'