We live up to the gift of our lives by expressing our rarity. We are each someone who has never existed and never will again. To sacrifice what is distinct about us to conformity is to betray the very thing that makes us necessary. Instead, we have to bring our real selves, not just acceptable ones, into everything we do. We have to turn our individuality into something tangible that lives in the world.
We are built for challenge. Our entire being, mental and physical, works to meet it and survive. Our consciousness needs a job to do. In the absence of something difficult to do, it turns inward, using pseudo-drama and monotony as a sedative. We don’t have to work for pleasure anymore. It’s at our fingertips. But it’s forward movement, not pleasure, that satisfies us.
If we’re not orienting ourselves to what we’re called to do, we get anxious. Fear locks us into avoidance. We wait for permission to be the person we already are, living a substitute life. But what we need is to bring responsibility for the quality of our experience back under our control. It’s more than the pursuit of pleasure. It’s the pursuit of maturity. It’s structuring our lives around what we’re called to do, for its own sake. Nothing needs to change for us to do that.
Only what pushes us to the limits of our capabilities will stimulate growth. Whether those limits are physical or emotional, when we challenge ourselves to do something we’re not sure we can, we grow into ourselves. We play the part we’ve been given, and we get the internal reward of being who we are.
Our reason for being isn’t to fit in. It’s to be ourselves while fully engaged with the world. If what we create never leaves us, it turns inward. It becomes self-focus instead of a contribution. It’s not enough to be in the world under a mask—that’s conformity. And it’s not enough to be ourselves in private—we have to grow up in public.
The work isn’t complete until it exists independently of us. We don’t have to waste our lives in boredom and worry while waiting for things to change. We can try to change external circumstances to meet our goals. Or we can change how we respond to them and move forward. If we are to contribute, we have to drop our demands for anything external to cooperate. We control what we can and let go of the rest.
Change and growth are better than pleasure and conformity. When we do more than we think we can, we learn how to do more. We practice doing it again. We build that into our daily lives. That’s where life is. Acting on the call gives something back. The act itself stabilizes us.
Quote: Inaction will cause a man to sink into the slough of despond and vanish without a trace. Farley Mowat
Song Accompaniment: Run Together, Mumford and Sons
Artwork: The Art of Seth
2026 The Accompaniments – Apple Music
2026 The Accompaniments – Spotify
Why Wait?