“There are 100,000 versions of Jeff Goldblum.”
Taika Waititi
You have many different versions of you.
Maybe you should be different.
Press the envelope.
Take a risk and some chances.
Or maybe you should be less risky and more status quo.
My favorite actor of all time is the great Jeff Goldblum1. He can inhabit roles unlike any other. And my favorite thing about him is that you never quite know what to expect from him. This same description has been given for many other actors as well. Here’s one written by Bill Hader:
“I’ve always admired Jeff Bridges. I really like how one can never get a handle on what he’s doing.”
Don’t give people what they expect. Blow their expectations out of the water. Do something they wouldn’t ever expect.
When they expect you to go left, go right. If they go up, go down.
If you’re M. Night Shyamalan, this advice may not be for you. But if you’re anyone else, defy the version people have seen previously.
Today’s challenge is simply thinking through two questions:
What’s one thing you can do today that would defy all expectations?
What is one thing you see as a pattern in your life that you can tweak?
I love Jeff Goldblum so I wanted to share a couple clips from his appearances on talk shows. Here is one time he sang his own lyrics for Jurassic Park (on Seth Meyer’s show)! Here is Jeff delivering my favorite line from the movie Jurassic Park (“Your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could, that they didn’t stop to think if they should” - originally from Michael Crichton’s book). And finally, here is one more clip from Jeff Goldblum and this time he was on Conan’s show (there are many favorites that you should look up there).