#FutureOfWork Skills: Authenticity

12.30.2020

“Many people are alive but don’t touch the miracle of being alive.”

— Thích Nhất Hạnh

Last weekend I went to a baby sea turtle release center.

For some reason, nature has designed sea turtles such that mama turtles must come ashore to lay their eggs. Once they do, they camouflage the nest and head back into the ocean.

Au revoir, kids, and good luck. You’re going to need it.

Only 1 in 1,000 sea turtles makes it to adulthood. The vast majority of them die before they even reach the water.

This is probably why the conservation volunteer who dumped my turtle into half a coconut shell to carry to the shore—better not to touch them—was so cavalier about its release.

“Okay, have fun! By the way, we can’t do anything about the sea gulls,” he said, as he waved and walked away.

I looked down at the flailing, defenseless creature in my care, decided to call him Ricky, and tip toed with him towards the sea.

After a slow start, Ricky made it to the water’s edge and was swept by a wave into the ocean, where he belonged. I was stoked!

And then a seagull dived down and plucked Ricky out, rendering him another member of the sea turtle majority.

Reader, there is nothing to make you appreciate your fragile existence on this space rock orbiting the sun like seeing another living thing perish mere hours after being born.

That’s why my topic today is authenticity.

This year has quite literally taken a year off us all.

But your life expectancy is a hell of a lot longer than the average sea turtle’s, and that’s a blessing.

We can no longer exist as a fraction of who we truly are. Life does feel fragile, between the virus and the uncertain future of our planet.

We’ve been ravaged mentally, physically and emotionally.

Life is also calling for us all to wake up and engage with it more fully in order to survive. The philosopher Toby Ord describes humanity as being on ‘the precipice,’ in need of a great awakening.

Even as we near a light at the end of the pandemic tunnel, inspiration can feel far away. An authentic vision for your future may be unclear.

So break it down. Ask yourself, and often:

What do I want right now?

What, in this moment, could make me happy?

Lean into your highest excitement. You will get your vision back.

It’s precisely because we don’t have all the time in the world that you must feel you have enough of it to prioritize a silly thing like joy.