You can always choose the direction of your life.

You may not be able to control everything that happens, but you can keep choosing how you respond—and what your next step will be.

The more resources and opportunities you have, the more room you have to choose. You can decide what to buy, what to invest in, who to surround yourself with, and where to direct your time and attention.

But perhaps the most important choice is this: How do you want to live your life?

The internet has expanded that freedom even further. It has never been easier to spread an idea, make a video, share what you know, or find people who share your interests and beliefs.

In We Are All Weird, Seth Godin describes the disappearance of the one-size-fits-all world—a world in which average products were made for average people.

Above all, his book is a call to anyone who wants to make a difference to someone else:

Take action.

Who do you want to matter to?

The idea of one big “normal” is gradually disappearing.

There are countless ways to shape your work and your life. Perhaps that means it is becoming less about doing something that is universally “good” and more about finding the right fit.

Because what is valuable depends on who you are creating that value for.

Selling ice at the North Pole, for example, may not be a particularly promising business. Sell that same ice in the desert, and your prospects suddenly look very different.

So it is not only about what you do. It is also about who you do it for.

What gives you energy? Where do your strengths lie? What value do you want to add—and what value are you actually able to add?

Who are the people you feel at home with? Who would you like to make a difference to?

Give yourself permission to experiment

Feel free to do what suits you.

And give yourself permission to experiment—to discover what works simply because you can. Because you are curious. Because it is what you want.

Try to enjoy the doing, and do not let the outcome determine too much of how you judge what you did.

A good result does not automatically mean you made good choices. People sometimes achieve excellent results through poor decisions. And the reverse is true as well: thoughtful choices and worthwhile actions can produce very little visible success.

Results are information.

They are not a final verdict on what you did.

Be willing to look foolish

When you choose your own standards, you run the risk that other people will have opinions about them.

They may think your choices are strange, unwise, or even a little foolish.

The jester’s hat is a fitting symbol for this. The court jester was allowed to step outside the usual order. And from that position, he could say and do things that others did not dare to.

Stepping outside what is considered normal can still feel uncomfortable today. We constantly look to other people for clues about what is sensible, successful, or acceptable.

But as the idea of one big “normal” continues to fade, another question becomes more important:

Does what I am doing fit who I am—and the people I want to make a difference to?

Finding your own way may therefore require a willingness to look foolish from time to time. To try something before you know whether it will work. To take a different turn from the people around you.

Not for the sake of being different, but to create room for what genuinely fits you.

So go ahead. Put on the jester’s hat once in a while.

Try something. See what happens. Learn from it. Then choose your direction again.

If you choose your own standards, sometimes you have to be willing to look foolish.

Take action

Taking action does not mean you need to know exactly where you will end up.

It simply means taking the next step.

Then you take the time to see what happens. You learn, adjust, and take another step. In this way, you keep shaping the direction of whatever begins to emerge.

Perhaps that is ultimately a more interesting way to approach life than trying to live up to someone else’s idea of what is “normal.”

Let go of the idea of one big normal.

Discover what fits you, who you want to matter to, and what choices follow from that.

Choose your own normal.

How will you live your life?

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