LITMIR.BIZ

      Within this cotton wool protection, we are too afraid to take up the adventure of life because we have all these people telling us we can't go there, we shouldn't do it, we shouldn't try it, we shouldn't give it a go.

      More and more people are living their lives vicariously through watching reality television shows. We watch MasterChef but eat fast food. We watch The Biggest Loser rather than go to the gym. We would rather watch Survivor than set out on our own adventure, and rather watch The Apprentice than start a business ourselves. Then we get nice and comfy on the lounge and we watch Jerry Springer just to prove to ourselves that, compared with others, our lives aren't really that stuffed up.

      We have become a nation of watchers, not doers.

      The cotton wool society holds us back, putting us in boxes and applying labels that define us by our actions. From the day we're born we are labelled: he cries a lot, she sleeps a lot, so there we are in our first box. Then we go to school and we get put in more boxes: she is good at sport; he is disruptive; she can dance. Then we go to work and get put in another box: he is not a team player; she doesn't write good reports; he is not dedicated. Throughout life we are given more and more labels and are put into more and more boxes. The cotton wool society shapes the way we live. Everyone is expected to do things the same way and we get caught in this system and pattern.

      The great achievers in life don't fit into the boxes. They won't accept being put inside a box or accept being labelled. They shrug it off. They create their own path and take responsibility for their own lives and results.

      Are you living in a system of same old, same old, doing what everyone else does? It goes something like this: I'm born. I live in a family in a certain degree of financial security. I grow up in that family. I go to school. I go out into the wide world and look for a job. I find a partner. Everyone asks me when I'm going to have kids, so I have kids, and everyone wants to know when we are having another. Then everyone asks when I'm going to get a new job. The family is on my back about when we're going to get a bigger house, a better car. Living life in this cotton wool society, you grow to believe that you need to do all these things in this way, following the same pattern.

      Then you get to the stage when life is starting to run out, and you ask yourself, ‘What am I going to do when I retire?' Then you retire, get a watch in a gift box, and do very little until you are put in your final box – and that's the end of it. I don't know about you but I refuse to live in these boxes. I refuse to accept the labels. I refuse to do the things that average people do. I refuse to participate in a world that has decided to watch rather than do.