On Friday (27/10/17) Nadia told me about a guy who makes a living from making Youtube videos of himself, bouncing on trampolines. My mind suddenly exploded with the multitudinous ways we could earn a living.

Later that day, as coincidence would have it, Joel and I fell into conversation over the idea that, if we’re doing what we’d happily do for free then that’s the perfect job. My heart suddenly exploded with the desire to find a café and write about this, which I did.

Having written, I realised writing stories in cafés is what I have happily done for free for a very long time. So, how can I make a living from doing that? My mind is feverish with ideas … and this is what I wrote to myself:

One sagely person said that if we’re doing what we’d happily do for free, then we’re in the right job.

I wonder how many people are doing that: being Paid for what they’d happily do for nothing. Not many, I imagine.

And that’s kinda’ weird, don’t you think? After all, there’s people being paid to do the most bizarre things … I mean, this morning I heard about someone who makes Youtube videos of him bouncing on a trampoline. He’s got so many followers that advertisers flock to his channel. Paid to bounce up and down in the comfort of his own beach house … how weird and creative is that?

People will happily pay us to do all sorts of crazy, ingenious and fun things and yet the majority of us limit our existence to the most mundane, brain-deadening things we wouldn’t do if we weren’t paid.

There’s several reasons and the first is fear. I mean, we won’t actually die if we try something that’s not obscenely profitable … or vaguely profitable. Rather than risk the ignominy of financial embarrassment, we plump for financial inadequacy, doing what we wouldn’t do in our spare time with people we wouldn’t commune with in our spare time … as if that’s better!

Yes, there’s all these obscenely successful actors and musicians, for example, who were financial failures … for a time. They didn’t die. They were poor and had no guarantee the poverty would dissipate. It might have been hard, depressing and demeaning but they didn’t die. Then, one fine day, the sun came out, they got a break and their finances rose above anything you or I could aspire to.

Another reason for the dumbing down is that we’ve been dumbed down from birth. Witness the parents scuttling round their children at the playground, ready to protect them from harm and constantly calling out, “Be careful!” When we leave on a trip, most people wish us a safe Journey. Why not an exciting journey, a peaceful journey, a satisfying journey, an uplifting journey … any kind of journey but a safe one.

We have safety instilled in us at every turn so no wonder we retreat to “safety” when it’s our turn. We cannot not do safety and our default setting is to take the road most travelled, choking in the dust of those dragging their feet before us. We know what’s ahead. We know it’s not glorious. We know it’s not uplifting. We know the certain end. But, at least, it’s safe – we value that above all other.

The third reason could be that we can’t think of that which is inspiring, challenging and uplifting.

You may remember your school’s careers advisor working on your future, on your behalf. They probably had a list of available jobs and then tried to fit your tested talents into one of these boxes.

The problem here is twofold:

Firstly, over 80% of the jobs in the next ten years have not yet been invented, we’re told – they’re not in the career advisor’s list.

Secondly, our greatest, most creative and most fascinating talents have not been tested or brought out by your school’s limited system. Mother Theresa wasn’t tested for compassion at school. Nelson Mandela wasn’t tested for patience or persistence at school. Gandhi wasn’t tested for courage at school.

It’s as if 90% of our aptitudes, the ones our school didn’t test us for, have no relevance.

The ability to spell correctly did not serve Bruce Springsteen. The ability to do algebra did not serve Colonel Gaddafi. The ability to sit obediently and quietly did not serve Margo Fonteyn. The ability to memorise whole tracts of words did not serve Albert Einstein.

However, this inefficient tester of the minority of our abilities and tendencies is what bulldozes us into a job … a job that may not exist in ten years’ time and a job we’re likely unsuited to, given the huge percentage of people in jobs they’re bored or angry with.

So, how do we find that job we’d love to do even if we weren’t paid for it?

The first step in any letting go process is to recognise the problem and how it came about. Hold it in your hands and look it in the eye – note its weight, its texture, its colour and the feelings it arouses in you. Is there anger? Despair? Boredom? Depression? Lack of direction? Humiliation? Whatever the feeling, feel it. Take it right into your heart, your gut and experience it. Hold that negative feeling and let it fill every cell of your body … or whatever cells it wants to fill … until it disappears of its own accord. And it will disappear of its own accord.

Denial will only keep the feeling – and the job – in your life. Accept them and they will dissipate. You may need to do this several times and you’ll notice that, each time, the negative feelings will be smaller, quieter and less intense.

We attract what we feel and, as we let them go, the hold your job has over us will go, leaving a space for something more you, more suitable, to come along.

This is step one and we’ll look at step two next week.