Remember the Queen song “I want it all”?? See lyrics, video, wiki. Few of us actually relate to this desire. We seem to be programmed to make choices in life. Usually we go for the OR rather than the AND. In fact, it takes some time to even see that there is an AND. When we have little time to contemplate, we just go for the OR.
It took me time and effort to amend my default OR setting. I can’t really say that I have managed a default AND setting yet as I do notice regular fallbacks. Nevertheless, I’m more and more aware of this setting in myself – and in others. My increased awareness will help me in steadying my new default setting.
I think and feel that it is the parents who teach their children that they can’t have it all and that they must make a choice (e.g., food, drinks, toys). And to be fair and honest, there’s a lot of truth in those two statements. The downside is that we are programming our children to think digital (“OR”) rather than creating solutions (“AND”).
It’s also tempting to argue that the OR’s in Life must imply a missed opportunity. I’m a firm believer of using the talents that were granted to us by birth. The AND’s in Life could easily undermine that use. However, lately I think and feel that I have confused the maximising and the optimising of talents. Why would someone only have 1 set of talents?? Ironically, even my confusion was related to the AND / OR dilemma……..
Moreover, talents used to be the name for money in the Bible. Like dollars and/or euros. Money can be invested by either putting everything at risk for one opportunity OR by spreading over several opportunities to minimise total risk. I haven’t seen the AND yet in this case. The analogy with personal talents escaped me for long. I maximised rather than optimised.
Maximising my business (finance) talents made sense to me as the rewards were (very) high. My years of abundance have lasted very, very long. Nevertheless, my subconscious has always known that the famous 7 years of abundance are likely to be followed by the notorious 7 years of mischief. My personal (finance) talents are making me survive these 7 years of scarcity.
Putting all my talents in one opportunity was rather confronting once the music stopped playing (also see my March 13 blog called “When the music stops playing”). It felt to me like taking away a child’s only toy. You keep on looking for that toy until you realise it’s really gone. Then the blaming starts. Finding a new toy takes patience and inner peace. And – previously unrecognised – talent.
In essence, I went from maximising my business talents to maximising my new personal (i.e., writing) talents. I was reluctant to find a creative solution for combining both talents. Since several months I’m actively looking for an opportunity that allows me to combine (“AND”) my talents. This is new to me and also distinct progress.
As Freddie Mercury would say: I WANT IT ALL.
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