can’t always get what you want don’t get
your hopes up and get real don’t count
your chickens before they hatch and
don’t put all your eggs in one basket
these are just a few sayings we’ve heard
over and over and over again ever since
we were little but I’m wondering just
because it’s repeated by the millions of
people does that make them necessarily
true I think ever since we’re a little
it is ingrained in us to be normal we
don’t want to stand out and in Dutch we
have a saying about that dumar normal
don’t we all head cannula and it means
something like act normal that’s crazy
enough and ever since we were little
we’re trying to dress the same to listen
to the same music because we’re scared
of standing out because we don’t want to
be weird because you might get bullied
when you’re weird in an Australia you
call that the tall poppy syndrome and in
touch we have a few of our own sayings
using cope up with my felt I staked
fortune Cooper of hogs who sticks their
head out of the grass gets her head
chopped off or hobo move on the field
but just because we keep on repeating
that we have to be normal does that make
it valid I think it doesn’t really make
any sense anymore not to stick out I can
imagine old reasons for example when we
were living in tribes and there was one
of the guys he was like a real lone wolf
always wandering off by himself
endangering the rest of the tribe yeah
maybe please don’t stand out but right
now in our contemporary society it
really doesn’t make sense and isn’t it
funny that when we were 4 years old and
you say I want to be a singer when I
grow up the people will tell you oh
that’s good for you you can be anything
you want to be when you grow up but then
when you’re 15 or 16 and you say I want
to be a singer when I grow up then
people are like you’re probably really
talented but it’s really hard and you’ll
just be one of many trying don’t put all
your eggs in one basket and I’m sure
parents are acting out of love and they
think it’s best for their children when
they’re preparing them for life
struggles by being practical which is
the alternative of following your dreams
but why did we get so obsessed with not
failing and why is so much of language
and exercising caution my name is Britt
balls and I’m a singer and a songwriter
and I’ve always known I wanted to be a
singer ever since I was four years old
but life happened and I got really
scared I’m full of doubts and fears and
I’m scared of a lot of things I’m scared
that I’m not good enough to be a singer
I’m scared to be a financial failure and
I’m really scared of other people’s
opinions and before I put all my eggs in
one basket I had a really nice job
actually I was working in sustainability
and I love doing that because i felt
like it was making the world a nicer
place but still one morning I woke up
and I felt really burned out and that’s
the point where I said okay I’m going to
stop lying to myself
and I realized that I was ignoring this
feeling inside that I felt for a really
long time the feeling of not living up
to your full expectations and I felt
really shit about that and i told myself
okay this feeling cannot be reversed you
have to change something now or it will
keep on being like this so i make a
decision to pursue my singing career and
so I am I knew that in a very
unconventional way and I’m just saying
that it’s unconventional because i
didn’t get famous through 10 and show on
television instead i recorded an album
and then it took a while and then I
eventually found the courage to self
publish it however slim the chances of
success work and people have always
called me blindly optimistic and that’s
fine because I realize you can’t always
foresee the future or actually can never
foresee the future so if you can
envision it yourself why don’t think of
it as beautiful and so I use Pollyanna
as an artist name to remind myself of my
true optimistic nature for when the
going gets rough now things have been
working out for me and I’m really happy
about that but that doesn’t mean that I
never scared anymore I am still scared
and I’m full of doubts and fears and
sometimes when I’m on stage I still
think I’m not good enough and sometimes
at the end of the month I am in a very
uncomfortable financial situation
actually and also sometimes people tell
me things that are really don’t want to
hear because people love sharing their
opinion you know what that’s all fine by
me because I learned two things and the
first thing is that all these doubts and
fears and feeling uncomfortable is never
as distressing as that feeling is when
you’re not living you’re full of life
and the second one is that I actually
invite fear to come in my life because
when I feel life rushing through me I
know that I’m doing new things i’m
exploring
I’m going out of my comfort zone and I’m
developing and I know that is where
that’s where I want to be that is where
I find happiness so I allowed myself to
dream big and sometimes I allow myself
to dream even bigger and I have one pet
hate and my pet hate is when people tell
me to be realistic because I’m
absolutely not realistic if you tell me
to be realistic I really want to give
you a high five in the face with that
one yet because I’m not because it it
doesn’t help me at all to be realistic
because everyone is being realistic and
if you’re trying to chase a dream in the
pool of realistic dreams there’s so much
competition because everyone is already
there so why not aim a little higher I
think that’s easier but then people call
me naive and naivety has somewhat of a
bad rep especially with women because it
indicates that you don’t know what
you’re talking about like you haven’t
weighed up the consequences or the
possible bad outcomes and in touch we
have another nice saying hi airmar
needful mallet like on a doll that may
follow and I don’t even know how to
translate that because it’s so weird
assume the worst so you can only be
relieved by the outcome it’s not really
stupid or is that me I don’t know why
you would say that because if you’re
assuming the worst how can you ever get
working on something and how can you
ever try try to reach your goals that’s
impossible if you ask me because if you
allow yourself to dream a bit bigger and
say okay I’m gonna do it and I’m going
to make it then maybe you will take that
extra step that you need to make it so I
think that’s really strange and okay
maybe not even has somewhat of a bad rep
but I actually like to be naive
and I think I’m consciously not even I
think it’s okay to be consciously naive
I’m not saying you should be ignorant to
the worlds problems that’s not what I’m
saying at all but I think you have a
choice on what’s focus on because you
can focus on a diatribe of horrible news
coming at you constantly or you make an
informed decision to focus on the good
and I truly believe that the good always
outsmarts the bad and also I truly
believe that what you put your focus on
will grow for you in life and the same
goes for your dreams you can focus on
how horrible things can get for you or
you can make an informed decision that
despite how unexpected and perturb
things can get you have a dream you have
a goal you’re going to see it through to
the end ignoring all those doubts and
fears so yeah yet to consciously naive I
really like that thought and I think
it’s okay to say no to pessimism and to
say no to negativity that’s being handed
out on street corners to you I think
that’s okay and while we’re at it do
count your chickens before they hatch
because that’s something I learned as
well from quick and unexpected success
that is just waiting for you right
around the corner for you to come and
pick it up and you better be prepared
because when you say hope for the best
but prepare for the worst that makes
sense when you’re talking about a
natural disaster or something but it
really doesn’t make sense if you’re
talking about getting a goal because
it’s really easy to prepare for the
worst it’s just saying okay we’re going
to try this and when things go south i’m
going to be really sad and that’s okay
and we’re going to lie in a bath of
self-pity for an hour until my hands
wrinkle and then I come out and I get
back to work and I’m gonna fix things
but preparing for success is a lot more
work because you don’t want to stand on
that Nobel prize-winning stage
not knowing what to say that looks
really silly I think it’s really
important to be prepared for success so
I think all good things must come to an
end and i just want to remind you today
of the words that are passing our lips
each day and seem normal to us maybe
it’s good to reconsider them and see if
they’re still helping you and maybe they
are that’s fine and maybe they’re not
and we can change things around so yeah
we say all good things must come to an
end but maybe we say oh good things
become somewhere today thank you so much [Applause]
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