The Crossroads of Should and Must

Have you ever tried to look for your dream in real life?

Have you seen that TED talk by Stefan Sagmeister

Over time, you will reach a point on your journey when you are so far down your path that suddenly, you will look around to see that you have created a world and this world has created you—step by step, line by line, your dream in real life.

But when you choose Must, you inspire others to choose it, too. When you follow Must every day, you impact not only what you create for your work, but also who you become in your life.

If you’re not prioritizing the things you say you care about, consider the possibility that you don’t actually care about those things.

If you want to live the fullness of your life—if you want to be free—you must understand, first, why you are not free, what keeps you from being free.

Must is who we are, what we believe, and what we do when we are alone with our truest, most authentic self.

When you examine the Shoulds of your life, you are consciously choosing to get to know your prison—the expectations from other people’s agendas, the belief systems you inhabit but don’t truly embrace, and all the things you agreed to without realizing it.

Removing Should is hard and time-consuming. Because in order to remove it, we must first understand it, get to know it—intimately. We need to know each Should’s origins, how it got there, and when we first began to integrate it into our decision-making. Look for recurring patterns, and choices—both little and big—that are affected. How often do we place blame on the person, job, or situation when the real problem, the real pain, is within us?

Must is who we are, what we believe, and what we do when we are alone with our truest, most authentic self. It’s that which calls to us most deeply.