I’m 6’4″, can’t touch my toes, and am somewhat claustrophobic.
Despite that, I spend a lot of time in boxes. Kinda like cats. But, you know… not.
Dave and I are entrepreneurs. We co-founded SPYR.
Marla and I are Paleo bloggers. We co-founded Paleo Porn.
All of us are minimalists and contribute to that community.
“Hey, aren’t you SPYR?”
Yes we are. That’s our branding agency where we design and develop brands. Web design – a familiar little box.
“Hey, aren’t you Paleo Porn?”
Yes we are. That’s our Paleo brand and another nice little (biodegradable) box.
“Hey, don’t y’all work with The Minimalists?”
Yes we do. We’re active in the minimalism community. Another box, albeit smaller with less bling.
Boxes make it easy for others to categorize us. “Oh, they’re designers.” “Oh, they’re Paleo bloggers.”
But the truth is, those are just things we do sometimes.
Yes, we’re entrepreneurs who are Paleo. But we’re also travelers with a love for stoic philosophy. We’re minimalists, teachers, musicians, story tellers, and aspiring writers. We’re connectors, collaborators, contributors.
We’re creators and we don’t care for boxes.
Of course, from a branding perspective, this flies in the face of most good advice.
When you don’t define yourself as any one thing, it’s hard for others to define you. But we’re ok with that. It keeps things interesting.
We don’t need to define ourselves. We don’t need to do any one thing. And what we’re doing today can be, and likely will be, dramatically different in a week, month, or year from now.
And that’s perfect.
We’re humans, that’s a box we all fit in.
We’re also nomadic hunters and gatherers. We’re musicians and artists. We’re thinkers. We’re scientists. We’re artisanal coffee roasters. We’re each a lot of different things.
For millennia our species has affected change in this world we share. Change is what we do. Diversity makes us stronger.
It can often feel like success is only attainable if we subscribe to a single community. But that just isn’t the case.
We can all add value while stepping between many communities. And doing so presents new opportunities for growth and understanding. It keeps things interesting.
So don’t feel compelled to contort yourself to fit into a single box. Hell, when you see a box kick it over. Unless there are kitties inside. If there are kitties inside, pick the box up and bring it home. Cats are awesome.