If you’re around my age, you may well remember a hit song from the late 90s - Everybody’s Free (to Wear Sunscreen) by Baz Luhrmann. If you don’t, you should give it a listen, it really is excellent.
I don’t quite remember what prompted me to seek it out again a few months ago, but listening to it properly and paying attention to the lyrics, I found myself taking on a lot of the advice (even if advice is just a form of nostalgia, and dispensing it is a way of fishing the past from the disposal, wiping it off, painting over the ugly parts and recycling it for more than it’s worth).
So, here are some of the little gems from this song that particularly resonated with me:
“Don’t worry about the future, or worry, but know that worrying is as effective as trying to solve an algebra equation by chewing bubblegum.” - This one is so true. It can be really easy, especially when you’re making a big life decision, to focus on the potential negative outcomes, but you really don’t know how anything is going to turn out and trying to second guess it will only make you stressed, and hold you back from making changes that can really benefit you.
“Do one thing every day that scares you.” - Defining what scares you is interesting, and incredibly personal. Someone else recently told me that if you don’t get butterflies in your stomach before you do something, it’s not worth doing. Obviously that doesn’t apply to mundane tasks like washing up (unless maybe you’re scared of bubbles?), but it does fit into a surprising number of situations. I get butterflies in my stomach when I dive into rolling surf, but I also get butterflies when I’m meeting new people at a networking event - it’s a good test of how much something means to you.
“Don’t waste your time on jealousy. Sometimes you’re ahead, sometimes you’re behind. The race is long, and in the end it’s only with yourself” - It can be so easy to get caught up in what other people are doing, particularly with social media there to remind you exactly what everyone you’ve ever met is up to. But it’s good to take a step back and look at what you’ve achieved, as well as to think about where you’re going. The key is to avoid comparing yourself to people in very different situations. Even if they’re doing exactly the same thing as you, they’ll be on their own journey and you don’t know what’s going on behind the scenes, so give yourself a break.
“Don’t feel guilty if you don’t know what you want to do with your life.” - I’ve always maintained that there’s nothing wrong with changing your path. If you decide that what you’re doing now isn’t making you happy anymore, don’t be afraid to admit that and look for something new. Whether that’s a change of location, retraining to do something totally different work-wise, or something else entirely. When I was 14, I really wanted to be a Blue Peter presenter. By the time I was 17, I’d decided I’d rather be a war correspondent. And by the time I’d graduated and worked in journalism for a year or so, I’d decided I wanted a change again. It took me another few years to figure out that writing was still what I wanted to do, but just in a different form. I’m not sure that’s what I’ll always want to do, but now I don’t mind that I don’t know. I’m happy to change my path again later in life if that’s what I feel I want to do.
While I came across this advice by listening to a song, the lyrics weren’t penned to top the charts - they were written by Chicago Tribune columnist Mary Schmich. But how I found them doesn’t really matter, because I’ve genuinely found it useful. And if you take nothing else from this post, I hope you enjoy the song - and trust it on the sunscreen.
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