Being Remarkable

If you put it on a T-shirt, would people wear it?

Seth Godin

I want to be remarkable, and I am sure that I will be. My girlfriend always laughs at me when I say this, or when I say “I want to change the world,” but I do, and more importantly, I will. How I plan on doing this, I’m not sure yet, it is looking like it will be in the realm of health and medicine, but who knows, that may very well change. For Me this is a constant struggle, I feel like I should know what to do, and what I want to do with my life, but I couldn’t be further from that.

I sat down on a rainy afternoon to do a fear-setting task as designed by Tim Ferriss. The task is designed to help you overcome your fears and act on whatever life change or decision it is you want to make. I sat down, drew out the matrix on an A3 piece of paper and couldn’t think what action it was I wanted to check. Pondering fruitlessly I looked back through my notes where I write in any ideas I have and stumbled upon some notes I took from the ‘Not Overthinking’ podcast by Ali & Taimur Abdaal on Vision (I’d definitely recommend it)

This led me to Seth Godin’s blog when in his ‘Top 100’ posts I found, how to be remarkable, 10 tips on how to be great, perfect for my problem. One of the tips to ask yourself was the one at the start of the post; “If you put it on a T-shirt, would people wear it.” Unfortunately I didn’t (and don’t) know what it would be I would be putting on a T-shirt, but it helped reinforce I had to do something, because I wasn’t going to wake up one day and be remarkable. I know my goal, but the path is unclear; which doesn’t mean there isn’t a path. I suppose that’s how it is for everyone. No (well, not many) 21 year old knows exactly what they want from life, nor should we, but you have to expose yourself to as many situations where new opportunities can present, and seize them when they do.

Tim Ferriss’ blog about fear setting opens with

Action may not bring happiness, but there is no happiness without action.

Benjamin Disraeli (British PM from the 1800’s)

Currently in my life, I’m cruising, I’ve got a few stable jobs, uni is going well and there is little risk (an issue i’ve talked about previously). With no risks, opportunity has no chance to present herself. On Not Overthinking they often speak about the internet as a means to ‘get yourself out of your village’ which is a metaphor for increasing your surface area to opportunity outside of your immediate connections. So in the absence of a clear path, I’m going to use that as a starting point. The internet is a gateway for a world of opportunity, so if you’re in a similar position to me, I suggest its your starting point too.