I've been thinking a lot lately about what happens when the things that used to define you just... stop working. Jobs change. Roles disappear. The skills you were known for become irrelevant. Sometimes it happens overnight, sometimes it's this slow fade where you don't even notice until one day you're standing there with a toolbox full of things that don't do what they used to. My first instinct was always to double down. Work harder, talk louder, prove I still had it. Defend my turf. But honestly? That never actually helped. If anything, it just meant I wasted time arguing instead of adapting. What's worked better is just... being quieter about it. You can check out the short You Tube I did about this here: https://youtu.be/PqjZtOKFeZA I've realized that being good at something doesn't mean you need to dominate the room. Real capability comes from knowing what you're doing without needing everyone else to know it too. Being honest when you're out of your depth. Letting go of the old version of yourself instead of white-knuckling it. Being competent without making it everyone else's problem. I've also learned that you don't need to narrate your entire growth process. The people who are actually getting somewhere tend to just work. There's something kind of freeing about that — doing the thing instead of performing the thing. My dad used to say the smallest dogs bark the loudest, and I think about that more than I'd like to admit. When your old tools seem to break, nostalgia won't fix them. You may just need new ones. New frameworks, new ways of thinking, new skills. I've found it helps to pick one thing and commit to it for a set amount of time — like two months — instead of trying to reinvent yourself all at once. The ego stuff's been the hardest. Not feeling entitled to things. Not taking everything as a personal attack. Doing good work without needing a parade for it. Actually checking whether I'm doing something because it matters or just because I want to feel important.

I'm rationalising. And I mention this, because, the truth is I've been all over the f**n place on multitudinous occasions. I mention this because I feel the blinkers fell off recently. I'd love to say I 'took' them off - like I have some sublime superpower to radically change. But in fact, I was instrumental in them 'falling' off because I have been working like a dog in a constant life of enquiry for several years. So how precisely do I know these blinkers have 'fallen' off? Well like I said. I'm rationalising. Allow me to expand on what 'rationalising' looks like (to me, at least). It means that I am stripping away vague, pointless shit in as many departments of my life as I feasibly can. And it starts with the language I use. Years ago I recall reading: 'Speak to each person according to their level of understanding.' So I started to evaluate what that means. And perversely, it means stripping away elaboration, persiflage, self-fluffing and self-deceit. I'm half way through a self-imposed sixty day challenge to post daily on You Tube. I must completely attest to a great and bountiful revelation that this has provided to me. That is, get the reps in. I started out just 'posting' now, I'm planning posts, refining titles thumbnails and scripts. Creating themes, and in some weird way finding my own identity as a performer - as opposed to being a 'performative'. So, today I will post 'You'll Grow They'll Run': Success proves itself by what remains. And by now you may be wondering what the point of this post is. So I'll get to it. Evaluate these three Success Markers. Think of them as sign-posts. 1. Negative people will fade away. Which means instead of berating yourself for the apparent lack of attention you are getting applaud yourself because they are absent. 2. You treasure alone time. Instead of needing validation to feel 'real' you prefer the richness of your own thoughts. 3. Boredom is an alien idea. You are always busy, and becasue you are, you are an inspiration magnet.

Comment below . Where are you in the world? What is your current obsession?