What do fishbowls have to do with my life?
Well, a lot actually! How?
We all live in fishbowls. There is your family fishbowl, your career fishbowl, your hobbies fishbowl, and you could name any number of areas where you live your life.
Sometimes the idea of living in a fishbowl gets bad press because it may feel limiting or imprisoning. But the truth is if you jump out of that fishbowl and not into a different fishbowl and land on the table you are now flopping around helplessly in a cold cruel world.
So the fishbowl is a haven and a prison at the same time.
If you were to picture everyone walking around with an imaginary fishbowl around them, then you would see that everyone exists in a different reality. You could look at cars as a fishbowl. A line of cars stopped by a traffic light and each car houses a completely different world for that driver. No two cars in that line share the same fishbowl.
So you want to “escape” your career and widen your world? Great, but just realize that doing so you are risking your life and your peace of mind.
I lived in the amazing world of the German Theater system. I sang leading roles in operas in German theaters for over 20 years until I left it. I was looking for something better, something more, something … that wasn’t real for me. I jumped out of my fishbowl onto the table and have really been flopping ever since.
Don’t do that! Never jump out of one fishbowl until you have another one to jump into.
Having said that it is possible to stay in the fishbowl you are in and creating a new one inside of that. You may not be the big fist in the big fish bowl, but you can be the biggest fish in your own fishbowl. How?
Build your own business while you continue to swim in the one you are already in.
There are two things about building a business. 1. it is hard to get into profit soon. 2. it takes time to build.
By building your own fishbowl ‘business’ you invite people into your world. You create the environment, the rules, and see to it that you get the “right” people in there. People who share your mission, who believe the things you believe in, and share the same values. You aren’t taking over the world, you are creating a new one inside the one that exists outside. A safe haven for people just like you.
We cannot live in a vacuum by ourselves. That isn’t the nature of being human. We all need to belong to something bigger than ourselves. We need to follow and we need to lead. Knowing what fishbowl you are in and taking comfort in that isn’t only important but also vital.