Getting out of my head | Dushka Zapata

Get out of your head and experience new things. That’s my number one tip for becoming happier.

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Let’s just say for the sake of argument that your son’s drawings are no good.

Even then, your son has a gift.

He is in possession of something - or possessed by something - that enthralls him. That feeds his inner worlds. That compels him to feel full in the pleasure of his own company. He has something that drives and fulfills him.

Your son already has the answers to life’s biggest questions. He knows what he wants to do with his life.

This is meaning.

What you can do for him is divorce him from the idea that this is what he must do for a living.

What he has is so much bigger than that - not just a job but a sense of purpose.

This will pull him through everything.

Encourage your son to develop interests that are adjacent but different to his drawing and that are more marketable - such as, say, product design.

So that he always has options. So that this thing that is all he wants to do isn’t ever burdened with having to be what supports him.

So that it never has to be cast aside or discarded for being impractical.

So he never feels that his drawing has failed him.

Teach him to place it in a sacred place where he forever nurtures it and it for the rest of his life nurtures him.

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Dushka Zapata http://www.quora.com/profile/duska-zapata

Dushka Zapata is my all-time favorite online writer on inter- and intra-personal relationships who I've been following since 2016.