Most people let other forces determine how they live. This project, commissioned by STA Travel Australia, is inspiration to live life on your own terms.

Via @smayer87

The first is the cyclical one, the one that inevitably comes and then inevitably goes. There’s plenty of evidence that intervention can shorten it, and also indications that overdoing a response to it is a waste or even harmful.

The other recession, though, the one with the loss of “good factory jobs” and systemic unemployment–I fear that this recession is here forever.

As recently as thirty years ago a person could get by knowing one very specific skill, the “factory job” that Godin refers to. As long as they showed up everyday and performed their task, they would get paid and live a relatively normal life. There are still a number of jobs and industries that operate this way, but that is changing rapidly. The ones that do remain are probably living on other continents.

So how, then, do you succeed in the twenty first century? That’s a question I ask myself every single day. There is no simple answer. Kyle Baxter, another favorite writer of mine, wrote a thoughtful response to Godin’s piece, one worth reading as well. He writes:

The only thing holding us back now is ourselves. We are all artists, designers, manufacturers, managers, musicians, writers, creators—if we choose to be. And that is the fundamental difficulty of this new age: we all are responsible for our own success.

While that may sound like “a bunch of hippy shit,” I think there’s a lot of truth to that statement. Never before has the world required people to have as many skills and to juggle as many hats as right now.

The most glaring skill that comes to mind is that of the internet. Older generations like to declare that the Facebooks and Twitters of the world are ruining the way we interact. I couldn’t disagree further. They, in fact, are priming people to be publishers and in a broader sense, creators. Even on the smallest of levels – sending a one hundred forty character tweet – this is massively important. They represent a shift in power of information. Sure, there have been missteps along the way. These missteps, though, shouldn’t discount the potential. Instead of the mass media controlling the messages we see, hear and read, the power lies with the people. Individuals can now influence millions of people at a cost of exactly zero dollars. The winners of future generations will be the ones who figure out how they can affect others by using the skills and the tools that are presenting themselves right now.

I could be wrong of course. Maybe the future lies in something we don’t yet know about, something that won’t come about for a while. I’d be willing to bet, though, that what’s happening right now will influence the way we live well into the future. The tools are here, now. I certainly haven’t figured out the best way to use them, but I’m trying.

I never made the decision to actively improve my understanding of computers. All I knew was that I really had a good time trying to figure those things out. And I did. It has turned out to be an essential skill. I keep myself organized, informed and entertained through my use of computers and the like. But until recently, I was never proud of the fact that I knew this stuff. The problem with computers is that, when you are a teenage boy who is trying to impress girls, they give off a less than desirable impression. Inside, I’m a glasses wearing, socially awkward computer geek who could talk for hours about how the public’s use of Internet Explorer is hindering web development due to Microsoft’s unwillingness to adopt modern web standards.

Shockingly, girls don’t really like to hear about that. Maybe because of this, I never felt those skills had any value. Computers were just something I did. That’s one of the unfortunate byproducts of being a teenager. In order to fit in, you have to fit in. All individuality and uniqueness is pushed out as to not appear “weird”. What a terrible word. I wouldn’t wish that label on any kid. I was lucky enough to make it through middle school and high school unscathed, but not everybody does.

As a twenty-three year old adult, I realize how much of a shame that mentality is. The people I find most interesting now are those who are unique and have deep interests in things I’m not well-versed in. Take my friend Jake, for example. Jake is Jewish, a topic I know next to nothing about. Ever since the day I met him, though, I’ve asked questions and he has patiently answered and explained. I am now a more well-rounded and understanding person for knowing Jake and having him pass along that information to me.

That’s one of my most important take aways from college. I don’t mean it in the way that my first grade teacher meant it when she read us The Rainbow Fish or the countless ways in which we “celebrated diversity.” How, as a seven year old, anyone could be expected to understand that is beyond me. What I do mean, though, is that being unique and having interests is cool. One of my favorite quotes is by Butch Walker, the musician and record producer. He writes:

“I can smell it on people a mile away if they were brought up as carbon copies of their own peers. The shirts, the lingo, the philosophy, the record collection, etc… just take chances because you will never regret that.”

I wish I had taken that to heart a little bit earlier in life. Now I know that “being different” isn’t some meaningless piece of advice written in a children’s book or tacked up to a wall in school. It’s actually a really great way to do things. Sometimes you’ll find things you really love. You’ll find people you really love, too. Either way, you’ll be better off for it.

What prompted this call was a long, slow process started eighteen months ago. For a good portion of my adolescent life, I was a TV junkie. I watched anything and everything, regardless of the quality. MTV’s Room Raiders? Watched it. ESPN’s Around the Horn? Watched it. CBS’s CSI: Las Vegas? Watched it. I look back and realize how truly awful these sort of shows were (or still are), but at the time I didn’t care. My mind was a gutter for the useless and inane. I was only doing what most other people do, though. I had become a slave to my TV, watching without any real purpose. I just wanted to be entertained.

Sadly, the television industry knows this. At some point, people became content with watching horrible shows with no value and the TV industry started pumping out shows that fit the bill. I don’t know which of the two caused the other one, but I do know that “TV” is the worst it’s ever been. Which is why, eighteen months ago, when I found out I would be living for four months without a television set, I was strangely happy. I knew it would break me from the horrible habit of just having it on, for no real reason.

Please don’t confuse “TV” with television, though. Television is only a means of broadcast. “TV” is the sess pool of garbage that is transmitted through your cable box. ALASKAN WOODSMEN WITH BEARDS! 8PM! I’M HAVING AN ABORTION, PLEASE FILM ME!² 9PM! Awful. And the worst part of all of it is the fact that most viewers know that what they are watching is awful, but they do it anyway. People like to say things like “it’s my guilty pleasure!” or “when I get home from work I just want to shut my brain off for a few hours.” No. I was the world’s biggest Jersey Shore fan for a brief period of time. I thought the cast were complete buffoons and that it was quite funny to watch. Then I realized the cast were just complete buffoons.³

I asked myself “would I be watching this show if I had to pay $1, right now, to do so?” The answer was almost always no. Then why should I be watching at all? If you asked most people that question, their answers would be the same. And yet, here we are. Stuck in TV wasteland.

“Alright, sir, just to confirm, you would like to continue our service at the lower rate, is that correct?” She had gotten me. I caved. In a moment of weakness, I agreed to keep the cable subscription at a slightly lower rate, saving me what in the grand scheme of things is a small amount of money.⁴ I had to have over a thousand channels at my disposal. You know, just in case.

1. I wanted to believe this was because I played the “poor college student” routine but I suspect it was only because they didn’t want to see my money go.
2. I don’t think this is an actual show, but I wouldn’t be shocked to hear that it is. MTV does air “Teen Mom”, after all.
3. After spending a significant amount of time in Italy and learning the Jersey Shore cast would be filming a season there, I died a little inside. The cast of Jersey Shore is representing the United States of America in a foreign country. Let that statement sink in for a second.
4. Never mind the fact that I would spend less buying each episode of the shows I actually watch on iTunes and Netflix. There are a few issues with this, of course, live sporting events being one of them. A la carte sporting broadcasts are 90% of the way there. In a few years, I suspect it won’t be necessary to have cable service to watch most sporting events.