The only difference from that sentence is the word should in between the word you and do. If I rephrase it into declarative sentence, it will become something like this:
You are what you do, and not what you think you should do.
I found this statement from Paulo Coelho tweet a weeks ago.
So, since then I’ve been battling inside myself, whether I should do this or I just do this? Easier way to illustrate is always using yourself as example, and here is what happened to me last week.
For example, I had a friend who recently attracted to photography and bought his DSLR camera. With some groups of friends, we went to a weekend trip. Since most of us are keen in photography, we took many photos during the trip.
When we came back, we started to upload the photos.
When I saw his photos, I was simply wowed by his pictures. He just got the feel, the whole atmosphere of the scene, captured perfectly in his photo.
I felt that photography that I have has been taken away from me.
That statement may seems that I think highly of myself. Oh well.. that’s not what I meant.
What I mean is simply that I feel inferior (that’s a strong word) that I’m not as good as him. I told this to one of my friends. And that friend said, who cares!
That shocked me, and I asked why?
That friend said, you know yourself well that you will do what you feel you like to do, not what you should do. Maybe to some people learning chapter by chapter is working, but to some people learning project by project will work better.
The point my friend trying to say is, don’t feel intimidated easily. We should feel happy instead that we have the environment that support our interests. Although the style is different, but all of you are walking to the same direction. In that sense, you can help each other with your different knowledge.
Don’t define yourself with what we do too, because we are exist not because of what we do. It should be the other way around, what we do are exist because of we are exist.
And, one more thing, we shouldn’t feel intimidated, because we may take the same path when we are ready too. So, take our time, do it when we are ready. Not merely following the “should“.
PS: There are times when we must follow the “should” too. Weigh it wisely.
PPS: I should be grateful to be surrounded by friends who are similar yet different (skills, style or thinking), it helps me in a way to know what I like or dislike better.
