Keep your head in the clouds and your feet glued to the ground.

Dear rebel,

Have you ever been told your head was in the clouds? Did people tell you to grow up and start living in “the real world?” Didn’t you just hate how arrogant they sounded when they told you it was their way or the high way?

Yeah, me too. You were probably in the room next to mine, screaming.

I resisted “the real world” with their rules and boxes for as long as I could, keeping my idealism alive and kicking. For a while I even convinced myself I could do without the real world, that I could find a way I could exist in it without following its rules. That didn’t last long.

There isn’t a single (sane) person who lives 100% in the clouds.

It took me FOREVER to find a way to exist in this world and remain myself. It took a lot of compromises, too. Today I realize there is no such thing as living outside the rules. How could you? Every conversation you have, every job you take, and every decision you make has to do with somebody else.

Unless you’re Tom Hanks in Castaway and your only friend is a football. Or if you’re Quentin from The Magicians and you finally found out that magic was real and that you get to live the rest of your life in it.

You’re obviously not Tom Hanks or Quentin so…

You get to choose which ones will serve you and which ones won’t.

So decide what you want, what you are willing to give up for it, and start. If you’re not willing to give anything up, you can’t have it. It’s that simple. Every day is a compromise. Every day you get to live your dream, but only if you’re also willing to eat your sh*t sandwich (as Liz Gilbert would say).

And if you’re lucky (and smart) you get to compromise way less than you get, which constitutes an awe-inspiring creative life.

We break some rules and live by others. We are creative dreamers, but we are also passionate pragmatics. We strategically design our lives in a way that is tolerable for both our idealistic hearts and logical heads. Others may think we live in the clouds, but we are firmly grounded and kicking ass.

You can be rebellious and pragmatic. You can be idealistic and realistic. You can be a dreamer and a doer. And I think this is a beautiful thing.

Now it’s your turn…

*Creative rebels are people who are tired of following everyone else’s rules and want to go back to doing what you love and doing it your way.

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