I was listening to one of those motivational videos where the voices are really powerful. There are always a bunch of short audio clips of different people making really good points, and the music is building in the background the whole time.
I used to love those videos because they evoke such powerful emotion, and the world has a lot of wisdom that needs to be shared.
I haven’t listened to one in a long time now because I am finding that I want more meat and substance to the messages. The one liners in those videos don’t get to the heart of the matter for me right now, but I was reading someone’s blog post the other day and one of her recommendations was to watch motivational videos. She had embedded her recent favourite at the bottom of her blog.
So I clicked on it (you can watch it here if you like).
One of the men talking in the video said to take a look at what porch you’re on. If you don’t know what porch you’re on to take a look at your cell phone and it will tell you. The people you talk to the most are the one who’s porch your standing on.
I just wrote a blog the other day about the people you choose in your life and all of the advice around having people who lift you up, and how you are the sum of the 5 people you spend the most time with. I assume that’s what he’s referring to by “porch”.
But then he said something that caught my attention. He said, “you can’t surround yourself with blindness and expect yourself to see”.
I’m going to be honest, I’m not entirely sure I know what that means.
But when I think about the opposite, I have learned that visionaries help you see. Brainstorming works. Group mentality is a real thing. Ideas and life flow when you combine a group of people together that care about ideas and life and living. If you want to “see” a new way, a new path, or just forward movement then seek these people out… they will help you. Surround yourself with them and you will be part of the new group mentality.
So what does surrounding yourself with blindness look like?
There are people who are turtling and hiding from life. I used to be someone who did that. They want to isolate themselves from the world instead of live. They may think they already know it all and have shut off new information. I find they spend a lot of time criticizing others, blaming other people, complaining, and stuck. The path forward won’t be clear and in fact it might not even look available.
“You can’t surround yourself with blindness and expect yourself to see”.
If you’re looking for new solutions, seek out the dreamers and the doers.