The benefits of limited choices

PROLOGUE

After a morning shower I prepare my caffe latte, and in mere steps from the kitchen, I venture into my office. The backlit LED's stir my visual senses, and between careful sips I begin to click my way through live links, icons and thumbnails. The thought enters my conscious mind as to how starkly different my life was prior to March 2020 and briefly my thoughts are pinned to a moment when an altruistic gesture, changed the course of my life and career.

If the title of this article sounds counter intuitive, I would say that on the surface, you would probably be correct in that affirmation. After all, it is important to weigh out all the options when making decisions would you not agree?

The ideal in most situations is the sum of time and choice which guide us to arrive at certain conclusions, but this is not that kind of story in the least, rather it is a story which speaks of real life challenges met with relentless resolve.

This is my story as of late and by no means is it being written for you from a hero's point of view I am in many cases the anti - hero in my own life, as I observe my imperfections and to some extent, the imperfections of others. My truth suggests that we do not always make the best choices for ourselves and as a resonating parable we can be like the fly that slams up against a window repeatedly while overlooking the wide opening to freedom in its relative vicinity. This story is that flight into the unknown.

I WAS READY TO SAY GOODBYE

February 2020 the Covid 19 earth shattering chasm was being felt and we all braced ourselves with hope and fear. Hope that we would not feel the clutches of its powerful claws and fear for what could possibly come our way as we saw countries like Spain and Italy succumb to its devastating and intense grip. Simultaneously, my microcosm and the career I had built for decades was unraveling again. The memories of SARS in 2003 flooded in when my local Events Industry in Toronto came to a grinding halt to shortly thereafter, being punctuated by a concert headlined by the Rolling Stones, and attended by some 500 thousand people. Regardless of how relatively quickly that came and went, the landscape had changed in my industry, perhaps to some degree, in perpetuity.

It was this vulnerability that forced me to view the Events Industry as one that could no longer sustain me, especially when I began to see my future bookings vanish into the ether as Covid hit in Canada. I have an enduring love for Events and that has been the inspiration for a lifelong pursuit. But love, although quite powerful, cannot be the only ingredient to sustain what is needed for advancement. In that moment and in my mind I bid my career farewell and committed to start, not from scratch, but to start again, from experience. I had no idea what I would do but in that moment I was that fly that had stopped slamming into the window incessantly and had stumbled on that opening to the outside.

INSTINCT AND RESOLVE

Gone was the ego and gone was the pre-conceived notion of what my inherent "Value" was. I was not just saying goodbye to my career but it was more like the shedding of my skin. I felt a complete transformation which was happening, naturally, painlessly and more than willingly. I faced the insecurity and questioned myself numerous times along the way but I viewed those moments as very matter of fact and furthermore, as confirmations that I was on the right path. I had not felt the notion of being outside of my comfort zone for what seemed like years, well who are we kidding it was probably because it had been years since I had felt that way.

I felt invigorated and simultaneously felt like there was no other choice but to just follow this path paved only with the knowledge that it would lead me to somewhere from which to find another purpose. The rewards were being illuminated by my unwavering certainty that there was and is a higher purpose. It is not lunacy it is not genius and if I know myself, perhaps it is somewhere in between, you know where some mediocrity casually sits. One might even say that I had a spiritual awakening and I may concede to that in slivers, but my driving force was and is, my genuine desire to help.

EPILOGUE

Life has proven once again that it is still full of incredible surprises, it can still inspire and show us that some mysteries can be unraveled if we just stop and observe them. Even when there are many reasons to have insecurity and anxiety around the challenges which we face daily. The value should be in distilling the complications of the world in their simplest forms away from the distractions and away from the noise. When we strip it all down what do we want? The answer to that question is simple and we would likely find that the answers are not dissimilar from country to country and from a global perspective. Simply put, being good and doing good would be the central themes and in those answers we can find comfort in knowing the "The benefits of limited choices."