Here’s a collection of stray thoughts I have had over the past few weeks on rebellion (no, not the Che emblazoned hipster type.)
Creative problem solving is an act of rebellion – rebellion against what has been done before; against the status quo.
True rebels do what they themselves truly want to do; not what others don’t want them to do. The latter pattern is most often seen in teenagers – the more you tell me I can’t do this, the more I will want to do it. It can be hard to shift from this mode of thinking to the former one – to bring the focus back to “What do I want?”
True rebels go for what they want, even when this is what others want them to want. When we associate our identity with the notion of being a rebel, it can be really difficult to go against that and do exactly what you are supposed to be rebelling against.
True rebels know which battle to fight, and which to walk away from. Rebellion for its own sake is a waste of time and effort. It’s also just bloody tiring!
Cultivating the attitude for innovation as an innate way of being makes us the most effective against unpredictable change. “The only way to deal with an unfree world is to become so absolutely free that your very existence is an act of rebellion.” -- Albert Camus
