Daring to change the course of the river

Why 2025 is the year I plan to 'devolve,' typewriter poetry, and how fortune favours the bold...

Daring to change the course of the river

After almost 12 years working the corporate 9-5 grind, a penny finally dropped for me in 2024. And now it’s dropped it can’t be unseen. Every day it glints at me under the fluorescent strip lights, ice cold on the floor due to aggressively high air conditioning for a British winter.

And it is this:

Those who ‘reach the top,’ aren’t those who are the most proficient at their job. They’re the ones who shout the loudest.

It’s been proven, in fact, that those who speak most in meetings are more likely to get promotions.

And it’s not something I can, nor want to do; talking for talking’s sake.*

Climbing the corporate ladder has never been something on my agenda anyway. But this realisation opened my eyes to how fortune favours the bold in all areas of life…

Those with the most fruitful dating lives aren’t the ones who are the most beautiful; I have witnessed many friends who are the full package who don’t seem to have much luck in meeting the right men. And that’s not me being biased because they’re my friends. I’m talking smoking hot, funny, intelligent, charitable women who light up the room and are successful in their careers, going years, even decades without a long-term partner.

But the ones who don’t second-guess themselves or their romantic partners seem to fare better. I think it comes down to the subtle difference between confidence and self-esteem.

And those who work for themselves, in careers they love, aren’t the ones with the best idea from the offset. They don’t start with the slickest business model from day one. But they are the ones who aren’t afraid to try. They aren’t afraid to fail.

*That’s a slight lie. I can happily talk about love, friendship, dreams, seasons, fables, animals, poetry, novels, life, death, and what gives life meaning until the cows come home. But metrics, strategy and profits? Not so much.

So, why this, why now?

If all of the above feels painstakingly obvious to you, like nothing you haven’t heard before, may I gently challenge you to ask yourself if you’ve gone after all the things you want? Or has security and safety won out many times?

See, it’s one thing to know ‘fortune favours the bold.’ It’s another thing to truly live it.

Some people are content with living a life that was already designed for them. This substack probably isn’t going to appeal to them, which is totally fine.

This is for those determined to break free from the designed life so many of us live.

You know the one: go to the office, work several hours, procrastinate for several, and moan for a few more. Go home, buy yourself a little treat to reward you for getting through another day. Head to the gym to regain some semblance of power over your life. Rinse and repeat for around forty years until you retire.

Fair play if you find contentment in that, but I just… don’t.

So, this year, I’m on a mission to devolve. Hear me out:

I want to cut off as much technology as is possible while still being a part of society. I have a new venture in creating typewriter poetry. That’s only the first step. Once I leave my corporate job (and are somewhat free from the shackles of 2-factor authentication) I intend to only put my smartphone on for one hour a day, in favour of a ‘dumb’ phone.

I intend to carve more time out for cooking to eat less junk food, too.

I think there was a point in human evolution where we got many things right, but now, we’ve taken things too far. My TikTok FYP is getting more and more cluttered with fake AI accounts, full of comments from people who think they’re real. My screen time averages 5 hours a day. If I do the math on how much time that is staring at a tiny screen over a lifetime I think it will see me off.

And the irony isn’t lost on me that in order to connect with my people (the people who see right through capitalist, consumerist bullsh*t and would favour a much simpler, more tangible life) I must engage in the very things on the internet I want to rebel against.

I’m seeking a balance between my dream life and a life that can work in the modern day.

I know typewriter poets out there who are able to work on their craft full-time. I have some very supportive friends of this dream and some friends who are sceptical. I know it’s because they care and are risk-averse. They don’t understand why you would want to leave the security of a job within a huge company. Well, challenge accepted. They don’t understand that for a creative, it isn’t an exaggeration to say it’s a matter of life and death (or at the very least, sanity) TO leave such a company.

I started writing this on a whim, the first Sunday of the year in a cosy coffee shop I almost risked my limbs to get to on the grey, Manchester sludge we call snow. I’m not a pro-essayist, I have no idea where this substack is going, but if you’re curious about the simple life, about devolving away from all the rubbish we’re told we want day in, day out, then I hope you stick around as I document my mission to boldly go against the grain and see if fortune will be in my favour as a result.

Here’s a poem I shared on my socials today. It’s inspired by a tarot animal card reading I had once, where I got The Beaver. The reader said to me, that the special thing about beavers is they have the power to change the course of the river.

So now, we build. Stick by stick.

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