Why Grown-Ups Will Never Change the World

Would you believe me if I told you that there is very little separating you from the likes of creative geniuses like Leonardo da Vinci and Albert Einstein?  Probably not.  But it’s true.  And it’s not even an intellectual difference.

Every human being holds within themselves the spark of divine genius.

The thing that keeps most of us from becoming great creators and scientists like da Vinci and Einstein is not a vast difference in intellectual ability.  No, the limitation that separates us from great creators like these is the fact that we are constantly striving to become something that resembles our idea of a “grown-up.”  And in doing so, we have come to abuse and mis-use our imaginations.

If you get the chance, observe a young child at play for a little while and consider why you don’t think that way anymore.  I don’t know about you, but as children, my friends and I visualized amazing, fantastic things.  We imagined that we were kings…warriors….pirates…astronauts…doctors.  We created entire worlds unto ourselves, and we made changes to those worlds as we saw fit.  And that’s what creative geniuses like da Vinci and Einstein do.  They see the world through a completely different lens, and they decide that they will change it.  And sometimes their visions are so strong that they completely revolutionize the way that the rest of us see things.

Why can’t the rest of us do that?

When we grow up, we begin to become aware that the world has some sort of expectations of us…and we begin to become self-conscious.  We begin to fear being excluded from society, and we slowly stop using our imaginations to create.  We stop trying to be different.  We stop trying to change the world.  We stop living our lives for ourselves.  And what do we start using our poor imaginations for?

Worrying.

We start to worry about what people will think.  We start to worry about what will happen to us in the future.  We start to worry about fitting in.  And the creative potential within our vast imaginations is channelled almost exclusively into worrying and forging worst-case scenarios.  So when can we find the time to create solutions?  We can’t.  Because we’re attempting to change the world by trying to be grown-ups. And this simply cannot work.  The pursuit of adulthood creates stress.  Stress creates worrying.  And worrying does not create solutions.  Only problems.

As someone that spent a long time trying to cope unsuccessfully with the transition from boy to man, I beseech you…please stop worrying about that elusive ideal of adulthood.  It does not exist.  All of us are still children, playing “house” and “dress-up.”  It’s just that somewhere along the way, the games became our lives.  But the good news is that if our games can become our lives…then our lives can also become our games…:).  If you truly want to get back in touch with your potential for genius, you should start by casting off the world’s expectations of you…and committing to rediscovering that boy or girl that once built castles in the sky.

I’d like to leave you all with a quote from G.M. Trevelyan:

“Never tell a young person that anything cannot be done. God may have been waiting centuries for someone ignorant enough of the impossible to do that very thing.”

Thank you for reading, my friends.  May you all think of at least six impossible things before breakfast!  And kudos to whoever can tell me where I got that last sentence from…;).