Many people have asked me, “What do you want to do with your life?” I usually just list of whatever I have planned as a career or answer, “I don’t know yet.” But I do know, and my career is not what I want to do with my life--it’s how I plan on doing it. The other day, someone asked me this question and I decided to actually answer. I want to inspire.
I want to inspire people be better, stronger, alive, and awake. I want people to want more, fight for more, and live more. I want to inspire people to be happy, sad, confused, thrilled, upset, and renewed. I want people to marvel at everything and to feel like what they do matters. I want people to stop wondering if life is meaningless and act like it’s not. Because why not? I want to inspire people to read, run, play, hike, swim, dance, feel. People need to feel. I’m not going to lie and say that it’s always been easy for me to do all these things. To believe in a good life is one of the hardest things in the world. But it can also be one of the simplest. You’ll find that once you start believing, things will start to fall into place. Whatever misfortune or heartbreak chooses to cross your path, if you believe life has more to give, the more you can take.
I want people to take more from life, not other people. I want people to believe in their own strength and to love what they do and do what they love. There are plenty of other people in the world to do what you don’t want to do. And then I want people to go out and infect other people. Have a conversation with someone who is tired of living life and help them understand how important it is to be passionate about something, anything.
Someone once paraphrased Gandhi and said: “Be the change you wish to see in the world.” But I can’t just be this change, I have to share it. People have become so apathetic that they have stopped looking around them. I want to compel people to see. This is why I do everything that I do. It’s why I over-stuff my schedule and work a little too hard. It’s why I teach music and choose to learn and play music. It’s why I write. It’s why my first business is based on community development. It’s why I’d rather be a part of ten different things over one stagnant thing. It’s why I smile when I’m upset. It’s why I drag my friends out of bed to go to Santa Cruz for a day.
I don’t know if this answer satisfies all the parents of the world that want to hear about a stable job and a predictable life. It probably won’t. But if you want to know what I want, this is it. I want to inspire people to live.
