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A couple of lyrics from a song “Pacing the Cage” (written and sung by Bruce Cockburn and also performed by Jimmy Buffett) makes me wonder about the world as I see it today. It’s not bad – it has just become different and maybe we can change with it:

“I never knew what you all wanted, so I gave you everything.”  … AND

“Sometimes the best map will not guide you.  You can’t see what’s round the bend.”

I’ve taken notice lately of a lot of dramatic changes not only in the ways we communicate, earn a wage, but how we relate to each other to name a few.  What appears to have worked well in the past doesn’t quite work as well and I see more people frustrated and “pacing the cage”, so to speak.

It’s all linked together and I’ve wondered how we’ve given everything and traded our souls for a false security?  Only we don’t realize the security is false until our jobs are outsourced or our partners move on to someone else. Sometimes we feel we’re doing all the right things and yet we feel anxious, pacing.

We invest in a college education only to find when we graduate the jobs are not there. Or you work your whole life and follow the rules only to come up short at the other end wondering what happened to it. Then you dig in and work some more only to realize your value in the workforce is not as great because of your age.

Could it be what we’ve bought into all along are not the real goods?  Could it be what we’ve been programmed and conditioned to believe has not just been for our best interest but rather to make it easier for others. Maybe by following the rules we believed we would in turn always be taken care of. We no longer had to think for ourselves – it was someone else’s responsibility.

In school we’re signaled when to move from one class to another or you start work by clocking in and clocking out when you leave.  Somewhere along the way we’ve sold out and learned to move along with the masses instead of engaging with our true nature and talents and being rewarded for that.

This new world will require us to deliver unique gifts and talents that have value and we have to learn how to move with it. No longer accepted will be the cookie cutter – template approach but unique services and products with our personal intellect and energy, individual connection and quality.

1. Just begin – start somewhere but start.
2. Ask yourself what you love to do and then research and investigate ways to create and bring it into the world. The internet offers a wealth of opportunities to do that.
3. Listen to your intuition and act on it when you have the slightest thoughts on how to create what you want and what direction to take.
4. Bring the best of who you are to whatever you do – give it value.
5. Recommend checking out information on Seth Godin’s new book “Linchpin” giving insight into what we can do now.

I would suggest that if you feel a little restless and “pacing the cage” it’s because of the shifts and changes in the world and it’s time to step back and take inventory of our lives and make some changes.

Take back our lives and depend on ourselves to move forward with the talents we’ve been given. The world is waiting and hungry for what you and I have to offer.  There’s a genius in each of us. What do you think?

Pat – from the ol’ kitchen table