Seth Godin defines “sheepwalking” as “the outcome of hiring people who have been raised to be obedient and giving them a braindead job and enough fear to keep them in line.” Yesterday’s post on his blog also makes reference to a number of people who have, because of their corporate environment or training, ended up sheepwalking. To the detriment of themselves and their employers.

You’ll also find sheepwalkers elsewhere in life: people who really don’t get the reality of living. Some people drift around for decades, before deciding to do something that they’re passionate about (and the word passionate is almost always used.)

Unfortunately, I reckon that most people live their lives without coming to a fundamental realisation – and it took me 33 years: that being alive is awesome and spending that time doing things that you love doing is far more important, far more rewarding and far more beneficial to other people, than just metaphorically and literally sitting around waiting to retire, waiting to die.

It’s not a question of waiting for that chance or opportunity, or that lottery win. That’s simply wishful procrastination. You just need to do it.