Disruption applied to life.
Creation and destruction are two sides of the same coin in the yin and yang concept of Chinese mythology. Two contrasting yet complementary forces happening simultaneously, flowing together to create balance and harmony. Light and dark. Winter and summer. Soft and hard. Valley and mountain. Creative destruction happens in order to renew, regenerate, transform, and refresh. It gives life and it destroys to maintain balance. Neither is good nor bad but essential for the experience of life, which is change.
Disrupting your life is about destroying and building areas of your life that you want to change in order to create a more harmonious existence. You are the one who is responsible for carving away the redundant parts of your life. Many live passive lives, waiting for someone or something to somehow change their existence. They wait for the ‘right’ time, circumstances or some miracle to manifest and change the way they live. They keep waiting because the only way can get to a different place is by taking action.
“Nothing happens, nobody comes, nobody goes, it’s awful!” – Samuel Beckett, ‘Waiting For Godot’.
You can choose to be passive and remain where you are. You can also choose disruption by being an active participant in your life. Yin and Yang. Constructive disruption can transform and energize your life because you make a conscious decision to destroy and build in a different way. You develop the awareness that you can destroy and build your life, if you dare. Not many dare, because they view life through fear. And fear assures you that your future is secure if you build your own fortress and remain firmly entrenched there.
Nothing could be further from the truth because life, by its very nature, is unpredictable. Disruption happens to everyone. What fear does is actively isolate you from the spectrum of varied and amazing experiences that life has to offer. It keeps you rooted to your little fortress located amidst many others, with everyone claiming to experience life to the fullest but going nowhere. Your experience of life is constricted. Nothing changes. Is this the future you want?
“If you don’t cannibalize yourself, someone else will.” – Steve Jobs
The only way to move beyond fear is getting comfortable with being uncomfortable. You cannot be true to yourself when your life is ruled by fear. It makes you do and say things that don’t reflect who you are. Once you walk through it, you realize that your comfort zone means nothing. You are on your way to making powerful changes in your perspective and disrupting your life to serve you.
Disruption, like all else, begins on the inside. After you target the area to disrupt, you need to actively work on demolishing and rebuilding it the way you want. Contrary to what you may think, this is a positive experience because you emerge stronger, happier, and willing to take life on its own terms. You no longer depend on your little fortress, forgotten and left far behind. Instead of breaking, you learn to bend with the ups and downs of your life graph. You thrive instead of just surviving.
Fear does not rule you when you embrace conscious disruption. You take action instead of constantly talking about something or wishing for it. Disruption makes you wide-eyed with wonder. You move away from the crowded paths, which opens up new and sometimes unexpected experiences that help you grow. You will also learn to use your doubts and questions as motivation to move forward, recognizing that fear of the unfamiliar is what prevents your from relishing the journey.
How can you sustain the momentum and complete the process of disruption? Keep doing something different from what you were earlier. As you keep experimenting, more paths open up. You need to remain fully committed to walk the path without retreating or giving in to fear. Disruption allows you to live life on your terms and in the way that is most fulfilling for you – everyone’s dream. It makes you bold and more self-reliant.
“Step so far outside your comfort zone that you forget how to get back.” – Anonymous
What’s the worst that can happen anyway? Many make the mistake of remaining where they are because of false notions of security that keep them bound for life. Disruption shatters that mirage and opens up an extraordinary life, if you will only take that first step. Your life is too short to build it the way others want. Disrupt yourself and build it in a way that serves you.
