Wednesday, October 13, 2010

Unattached and Free to Dream

It seemed that Nishta restaurant in Dubrovnik was the place to meet interesting fellow Aussies….we instantly connected with Wiam and Anthony from Sydney, who shared about the businesses they had bought and sold, all on a whim and without taking any decision too seriously. They had decided only 3 weeks before leaving Australia, to sell their business and go. Listening to the language they used, we initially thought they were being excessively flippant, but after talking to them for a while we discovered a much deeper attitude that reminded us to hold everything in our lives lightly. They spoke of being attached to nothing and making firm decisions based on calculated risk, going with your first instinct rather than agonizing over those decisions. We were inspired by their willingness to give anything a go and not be threatened at all by the possibility of failure….after all, if something doesn’t work out, it’s an opportunity to create change. We could see that their unattachment to ideas, to things, to a career, to anything, was what allowed them to be completely confident and free in their decisions. After all, if we are unattached to everything, how much are we really risking? The question is, how do we remain unattached in a consumer society that bombards us with wrong messages about what we need to be successful or to be worthy as a person…..like ‘we must own a house to have real security’, ‘we need a career to be successful’ or ‘we can’t possibly live without x’, just to scratch the surface. Maybe if we can be more aware of these messages, decide on an alternative and develop a new definition for success, we can be free to dream and live beyond the norm. Maybe I’ve oversimplified things and life is a little more complicated, but it’s something to think about. Would love to have your thoughts.

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