Permission to be inconsistent

One of the shittest things about growing up is that you stop being able to just be and that be your identity and you start having to be the identity you have created for yourself. Consistently you, none of this phase bullshit, like that time you were super into 1950’s American culture and decided to consistently wear a bowling shirt until you didn’t. Or that moment where you were deeply interested in spirituality and Boho style and feng shui’d your room, started yoga, piled on bracelets and stuck magazine pictures on your wall.

No, now you have a style and that’s your style. You do a thing and that’s your thing. You behave in a certain way and that’s how you behave. No more changing accents for half a day or being into something and then not into something. Just plain old everyday same thing, same you, because people like consistency, they like to be able to know what they are getting from you. Work calls don’t tend to tolerate you changing your accent, deciding instead of working on that proposal you are actually going to research the deforestation of the amazon or make some finger puppets. Which I kind of get (This is the challenge of swapping money for time – there is way less finger puppet making).

But where does that leave us. Creative, interested, changeable humans trapped inside human brand boxes- where everything we do affirms our identity and everything we don’t do loses us followers on social media (which let’s face it is how we know we’re successful right?). And to be honest I am bored of it. So, I want to start a rebellion to consistency.

Or at least to the brand box.

Let’s be changeable and inspired. Let’s make more finger puppets, let’s turn up for yoga 5 weeks in a row and then miss it to go to try roller blading. Let’s Read things that don’t fit with our pretentious ‘I am educated and a writer’ persona and instead dive deep into confessions of a London spank daddy.

Because who we are to the world doesn’t need to be defined by choices we made at 13. It could be redefined every moment. Let’s choose to be consistently in support of ourselves and others. Consistently curious. And maybe consistently brush our teeth – because that one is important.

But most other things well, maybe consistency isn’t everything. And yes, maybe we won’t become brand successes, influencers, or get to become ‘the sleep guy’ or ‘the boundaries lady’. But maybe we get to become more of ourselves and enjoy life a little bit more, which I think might be the point.