“I really think I should sequester myself in a room and just finish the project.” I mused to my friend.

Smiling she asked. “So you want to be a fish, you want to swim?”

Staring back at her I paused. If swimming meant staying on task, finishing the project and realizing completions, distance, milestones, success markers. Yes, for crying out loud I wanted to be a fish. Fishize me! If swimming meant changing how I create things I wanted desperately to swim, swim, swim!

I knew it was a trick question but I had to play. I mean, come on I do this for a living. Why shouldn’t my friends toy with me-too?

“Yes, I want to be a fish. Can you make that happen?” I teased.

She laughed. “Of course you do, because you’re a bird.”

“A bird?” I repeated.

“You’re a bird, you were made to fly, not swim, so of course every day you see all these fish everywhere and you wonder if maybe you’ve gotten the input data wrong. You start to think that instead of soaring through the air, landing from tree to tree you should be deep water diving in the depths of the ocean or floating downstream. You start to wonder what it would take to turn your feathers into scales. And how long it will take for those beady eyes of your’s to adjust to seeing underwater. But we both know the truth don’t we? You’re not a water loving creature, you have an affinity for the air, the sureal. Your way is not the way of the fish, it’s the way of the bird. You were made to be in flight, chirping and landing. All this is nothing more than insecurity.”

Accountability friends. Dream team. Over the years I’ve learned that if I don’t surround myself with speakers of truth- I am sunk! Why? Because I am so easily distracted from this call, this call to make the most original and authentic life committed to good that I can.

I share this story with you because I want you to know that I am like you on the journey. Always learning. Insatiably curious. Never having arrived and never want to allude that I have somehow obtained it. I teach and I learn because I am curious as to how we do this, how we continue to grow, learn and become and to create things of value with our one incredible life. I ask and I engage. I navigate and I learn. I am both in process and processing with others. We are all learning. We are all in process.

I think it’s natural to question originality, uniqueness, creativity and at the same time. I’m inclined to side with my girl friend, my accountability partner.

You are Originality. Original by design. Created originally. Designed unique. Now, if you’re a fish. Be a fish. And if you were meant to swim, swim and by all means- if you were meant to fly; fly!

In business and venturing we call it seeking blue oceans where we can solve problems uniquely with innovative, high value solutions. In life, we call it staying true to oneself; authenticity, originality, congruency and personal integrity.

Don’t swim if you were meant to fly and for goodness sake don’t’ try to be a bird if you’re really a fish!

So what’s your experience? Add your comments?

Pam Hoelzle

Make a life, not merely a living and do all the good you can my friend…while you can!

425 218 5864

Birds photo credit ploaded on September 11, 2009
by .bella.