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Okay, here’s the thing. You don’t need permission. I see so many people, young entrepreneurs, students — just real incredible people that want to do amazing things in this world and they are waiting for permission.

 

You don’t need any permission to live the life you want to live and do the work you want to do. 

 

Most people feel they need permission because that’s how most of us are raised. In the school system, it’s designed around a permission economy. 

 

Students usually to age 18 often have to ask to go to the bathroom before graduating high school. 

 

Just consider the behavior psychology of that for a moment. 

 

If a person spent the first 18 years of their life asking permission to go to bathroom, it makes sense why many people wait for permission to live their lives more authentically. 

 

But it’s difficult to go from asking permission to go to the bathroom to thinking fully for yourself. But this is where real game changing work happens. When you listen to your heart, shuck permission, and do what it is you want to do with your life. 

 

TED Speaker and activist Rose George knew this firsthand when she wrote The Big Necessity: The Unemotional World of Human Waste and Why it Matters. 

 

She began to calculate all the trips we are taking to the bathroom and asked herself, “Where does all this stuff (I’ll say stuff in case there are any children listening in the car), Where does all this stuff go?” You know…the stuff….

 

She traveled the world and looked at the waste systems that we have built around all around the world. 

 

Just a humbling side note: If you’re listening to this podcast, you more than likely have a toilet that you go to the bathroom on. Understand that this is something to be grateful for. Yes, Seriously. 

 

Out of the seven billion people on this planet, only 4.5 billion people have toilets. 

 

One billion people practice open defecation which means that they go to the bathroom in a field, usually next to the fields where children play. And no, they don’t have toilet paper. Toilet paper is a luxury. 

 

These are some of the facts I learned from Rose George. Here’s a bit more of what she had to say when we sat down for a chat not too long after her TED talk went viral:

 

Enter Ep. 34 w/ Rose George 

 

So, Rose George didn’t need permission to be a game changing journalist. And she certainly didn’t ask to go to the bathroom. 

 

What about you? As you go throughout your day today, try to see if there’s a moment where you either ask for permission or wait for permission. 

 

Just remember, this is your life on purpose. You don’t need permission.