Happy Monday Friend!

Hope you had a great weekend!

Mine was pretty good. I got a lot of rest in as I'm still working on getting rid of this little cold bug.

Anyway, I wanted to share with you a quick little story of an interaction I had with one of my sons last week that carries a great lesson for life success and happiness (i think).

We've recently noticed my son, singing outloud to himself, in random places, when he thinks no one is listening.

Hearing him sing makes me smile. Friedrich Nietzsche, once said "Without music, life would be a mistake."

Later on as I went to tell this son 'good night' as he was preparing for bed, I asked him... "Would you like to take singing lessons?"

HECK NO!" he told me.

'Dad, the kids at school would verbally CRUCIFY me if they knew I was taking singing lessons.'

So you're telling me that you're going to let the opinions of other kids, hold you back from doing something you want to do in life?" I asked him...

He pushed back and said "Dad you don't understand, in high school, the kids are ruthless.

One time this girl sang and played an instrument in front of the whole school and everyone laughed at her."

"Gee son, why do you think they did that?"

"I don't know, dad."

"Do you think it's possible that these laughing kids were a little jealous of this girl's talent, and that laughing was a way they were able to make themselves feel better about being 'less than' in this area?"

"Ya, maybe dad."

I went on to tell my son that in life, we all have to conform in some way.

In home business, we sometimes think that non conformity is the secret to raging against the machine, and living out our true authentic selves.

And yes, it is, in part.

However, if we want to be successful, we still have to conform in some way.

We have to conform ourselves to be and do things that certain groups of people will find valuable.

We have to conform ourselves to whatever purpose we find ourselves pursuing.

So it seems it's not a matter of just saying "To heck with everyone, I'm gonna do whatever I want to do..."

It seems more true to say that we conciously CHOOSE to whom and to what ideas, we will conform ourselves to.

I once wrote "Poor is the soul whose future depends on the permissions and opinions of others..."

I still believe that's true in once sense, but in another - no matter what we do, if we want success (which requires harmonious value delivery and exchange with others) we must conform in some way.

I guess the point is - how and to whom are we choosing to conform?

Probably a good idea to follow advice from mentors right?

Well that's conformity.

Not a bad idea to change ourselves a bit so we can live into our purpose, don't you think?

Well that's a process of transforming our current self, to conform with the future self, required to enjoy the success we want to enjoy.

Anyway, I'm rambling a bit now. :-)

But I did want to send you this little video I made today, sharing the story of this interaction I had with my son.

You can watch that here if you want.

Thanks for reading and I hope you have an amazing day!

Paul