…Permission prevents negative things from happening but often curtails or prevents spectacularly positive things from being attempted…
Transformation and Permission: You don't need to ask for permission to fulfill your potential and to pursue the life you want. No one can grant you permission anyway. Your own choice is the only permission you need. When we're young, we often have to ask for permission. Permission slips at school have it in the name. One of the great freedoms of adulthood is not having to seek permission from people—well, at least not teachers or parents. Of course, most of us have a manager at work throughout our working lives, and we have to get permission from time to time on various things. Still, we have more freedom of choice than most of us acknowledge and act on. I've always respected entrepreneurs because they choose to leave professional permission behind to chart their own professional course. Founders don't seek permission, and it is one of the great freedoms of starting your own company. Even if you aren't a founder, you can chart your course in meaningful ways that you don't have to seek permission for, which could be life-changing. You can choose to write a book (I've written two), write songs (I've written several, and maybe one day they will be listened to by a lot of people), paint the next Mona Lisa, or accomplish an athletic feat not yet achieved by others. There are countless ways to express yourself and things to do; the only permission you need is your own. The things referenced above take time and dedication above everything else. You don't need a big bank account to write, draw, paint, or run, for example...you do it. You permit yourself to do, and then you do. So why don't more people act on things they don't need anyone else's permission to do? Permission is a more complex concept than it appears to be. It's not that easy for most of us because we grow up being taught to seek and ask for permission for most things and any consequences. Our parents do it to teach us right from wrong, to keep us out of trouble, and to keep us safe. Teachers do it to help us learn, and ditto with parents on the rest. Permission is a command and control dynamic that provides guardrails to prevent adverse circumstances and outcomes. Permission prevents negative things from happening but often curtails or prevents spectacularly positive things from being attempted, let alone succeeding. No one is going to give you permission to define who you are, what you should be doing, and how you should be doing it as part of a transformation. If you have been seeking permission to be you, stop. You might not be who you ultimately want to be initially, and that's okay because transformations are not who you've been or who you are now but who you are becoming. The moment you stop asking for permission is when you start to break your cocoon and transform into the person you can and should be.
