Unfinished Symphonies

I turned 38 this week. That means the big 4-0 is now within striking distance. Rather than lament this, I actually like aging. I want to be a person that is perpetually learning and growing and becoming a better version of myself. This past year has offered me numerous opportunities to attempt this.

In his book Strength to Love, Martin Luther King Jr. made this poignant observation: “One of the most agonizing problems within our human experience is that few, if any, of us live to see our fondest hopes fulfilled. The hopes of our childhood and the promises of our mature years are unfinished symphonies.”

King famously had a dream of what could be—and was more successful than most in making it come to pass—yet so much of his life was an unfinished symphony. And so it goes.

One of the byproducts of me stepping away from the assumed career trajectory I’d always envisioned for myself is that it allows me to imagine and pursue my dreams with more tenacity. Rather than following some perceived script, I’m reminded daily that I can pursue the things I choose to value. It’s why I’ve gone through the WSET level 2 course (and awaiting results) to get formalized training as a sommelier, something that would have been hard to imagine a couple of years ago.

While a change in my script has been the most difficult thing I’ve ever had to grow through, I’m also grateful for the opportunities it presents. I don’t have a planned trajectory to follow anymore. I just write it a page at a time. While this doesn’t offer much for certainty and security, it provides plenty of adventure. The good news is that all of us can live with a bit more adventure without needing to abandon our current life scripts completely.

What hopes did you have as a kid? What career did you always think about? What things were you going to tackle as an adult? What did you end up doing with that?

What are your hopes for the future? Do you want to write a book, or launch a company, or create something that doesn’t yet exist? What’s a step you could this week to move forward in that direction?

What if we spent less time on the script and more time on the symphony?

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Jeremy Jernigan

Speaker | Author | Founder of Communion Wine Co. https://linktr.ee/JeremyJernigan