DOING THE OBVIOUS

​Feel like your ideas are second place ?  Like your thinking of something is proof enough of its commonality ?   Regard others with amazement for their “original” ideas and quick wit ? 
I came across this passage in “Die Empty” by Todd Henry , which btw is a book that can be read any time and from anyplace (in the book I mean) .   My kind of reading!  Even a tiny para is like a small arrow , shooting a precise message home.    ( I am working on a short power-point summary with my personal take-home nuggets from this book , and plan to share very soon )   
 

​Derek Sivers (featured in the book)  shared that one of the struggles he’s experienced over the course of his career is that other people’s work always seems to be intricate and innovative compared to his.  “I never would have thought of that.  How do they even come up with it ? It is genius” Sivers said.  In spite of his inclinations, he continued quietly going about his work and making the things that he felt compelled to make , even though most of them seemed too obvious to him.    Sivers was surprised when other people began contacting him and remarking about how inventive his work was and how they never could have come up with such ideas.
Ideas that seem obvious to you may be incredibly profound to others , but you may be inclined not to share them because of a fear that they will be perceived as too shallow.  Are you holding back insights or actions because they seem too obvious to you ?  Brilliant work doesn’t need to be complex.  Sometimes the deepest truths are hiding in plain sight. 
Todd Henry ( Die Empty) – Page 161 “ Do the Obvious”
“Obvious to you , Amazing to others”  - is what Derek Sivers calls these ideas.  And this is so true. 
I’m take my hat off to “persistence”.  Not giving up on your talent,  your creativity.   Giving recognition less recognition.  You can’t satisfy everyone, don’t let the critics get you down.  Public opinion is over-rated.

“The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore, all progress depends on the unreasonable man.” 
                                                                                                                George Bernard Shaw .

​On the lighter side of “doing the obvious” , we watched a movie last week with Meryl Streep , playing the role of Florence Foster Jenkins , a New York heiress who dreamed of becoming an opera singer , and pursued her dream with a passion ,  despite having a terrible singing voice.  This is a true story , and I secretly admire her grit (as well as lack of filter)!!  Not that all of us should subject other hapless human beings to our singing but the underlying message is a winner.