What do you want to be...?

'Nothing' is an acceptable answer

Photo by Irina Iacob on Unsplash

I had an epiphany this past week. I’ll explain more in a moment, but allow me a moment to digress. Growing up I often heard the question, ‘what do you want to be when you grow up?’ This question stumped me, in my mind I’d be thinking, I have no idea. The words that came out of my mouth always resembled something ‘prestigious’, they’re probably familiar to you: president, doctor, lawyer, astronaut, say something nice sounding, and see how it feels.

People will probably say, ‘well sure, no one knows what they want to be when they grow up’. In my case, not knowing was a more acceptable answer than the truth. If I was being honest I would have said, ‘Well I don’t want to BE anything’, for some reason I just couldn’t say it. My inability to speak those words has been a hidden source of consternation. For the past 69 days I’ve been concurrently reading through, The Complete I Ching and the Tao Te Ching. I’ve really enjoyed my time with these books, and I’ll be posting more about them in the future. But for now, here’s a thought inspired by these works.

If I am not ‘A’ thing,

Then I am anything.

If I am not ‘A’ thing,

Then I am everything.

This is all well and good until you add in the concept of money, right? Isn’t that the reason we’ve concocted this philosophy of, ‘what do you want to be…’? Because, being something simplifies the process of resource acquisition, or so we’re told, and it’s true, there is a relationship between simplicity and survival. 

There is an interesting parallel here with the ideas of farming and foraging. If money is ‘food’, then a career is the farming method of ensuring survival. Anything else one might do for ‘food’ is foraging. ‘What do you want to be…?’ is an agriculturalist's question. There is a known and effective process for planting, growing, and harvesting that's been repeated again and again because it’s simple and it works. On the other hand, foraging is more complicated, less predictable, and requires an assortment of skills to be deployed as circumstances dictate.

So here’s my epiphany; I’ve always been a ‘forager’. The timing of this epiphany is important because in order to do what I want to do next in life, I need to embrace my foraging identity. I won’t BE anything. I’ll develop the skills I need,  when I need them, and I’ll keep them as long as they’re useful.

Are you a farmer or a forager, have you ever thought about it?