Wait. Hold back your enthusiasm. (You could get burned.) Moderate yourself: The system wants you to conform. It appears to punish those who go all in or speak up to loudly.
That’s because the system wants you to be predictable. When you’re not and you change how you behave, you make life difficult for others: Your change often means they have to change. (Even more difficult: They may see something about themselves that scares them.)
This leaves you with three options:
- Keep operating the way the system wants you to.
- Choose a new system in which to function.
- Bend the system you’re in.
The first option is the most popular choice. It appears safer to stay hidden within a system. Blend in, do what’s normal and get by. Survive to the end.
The second option is a gamble, too. No system is perfect; those who jump from one system to the next are too often looking for something that isn’t found in the system.
It’s the third option that awaits all of us. It’s the choice we must make if we are to realize who we really are and that which we are truly capable of doing.
Bend the system. And as you bend it, you will enable those also in the system to better express their authenticity – which is ultimately what’s required to succeed.
