Easy To See; Hard To Touch: The Glass Box Theory

“Lock yourself in a room doing 5 beats a day for 3 summers…” – Kanye West ft. Consequence & GLC, Spaceship

I’ve always pictured life as this proverbial glass box. See the thing about the glass box is…you can see everything outside of it. Your potential, your goals, your dreams, your future and your legacy are right before your very eyes. Everything this world has to offer and more is on the other side of that glass ceiling.

There’s a slight problem though. Just because these aspirations are visibly within arms’ reach doesn’t mean they are easily attainable. In fact, it’s the closest you’ll ever get to them. There’s a daunting reality you’ve yet to face. Your life inside the box is actually one you thought you would never fall victim to: working a job/career you lack passion in, dreading Mondays and dreaming of Fridays all to “live” for the weekend, only to have Sunday night remind you that you’ll be right back on that hamster wheel come Monday morning. That, my friend, is your life. Week in. Week out. (Sorry to dampen the mood, but hey, at least I didn’t lie).

Walking in the sobering truth that your life is now about “going to work,” rather than fulfilling your purpose, is so tormenting that you’re almost on the brink of insanity. It’s so maddening; it’s so frustrating that you begin to create the very tools to break out the glass box.

As you methodically curate a plan to break through the glass ceiling, you seamlessly become unaware of the outside world and more aware of the internal struggle:

The fear of failure, fear of change, embarrassment of shortcomings, ignored pleas for help, frustration of not being where you want to be in life, lost time, resentment, anger, feeling unfulfilled, the sadness of confinement and resulting depressions

Lupe Fiasco said it best, “My greatest enemy is my inner-me.” Your self-awareness and self-evaluation become instruments of survival and the source of creation. What you make, or rather what you’re made of, is so compelling and captivating that external forces break the glass FOR you. This is the key to your liberation; force opportunity to knock on your door.

The most important epiphany will begin to ring bells: You’re not the mosttalented person, and honestly, you don’t need to be. A talented person hits the target no one else can hit, but a visionary? A visionary hits the target no else can see.

You will soon realize that seeing truly is believing --until you begin to believe in things you've never seen. It is at that very moment the glass box becomes your sanctuary and no longer your prison.

Pretty triumphant ending, right? You finally get to fulfill your purpose and walk off into the sunset!

Not so fast, kid. There’s no such thing as “happy endings.” Those only happen in movies. In the midst of your relief and joy comes the rejecting reality that the glass ceiling you so valiantly broke through, is only encapsulated by another glass box…that’s bigger…and thicker.

Another tough choice now awaits: Do you rest on your laurels, basking in the ambiance of your newly found victory or drive yourself to an almost deranged state to believe in something you’ve never seen…again?

Which side of the glass will be you be on?

****Video Credits****
Writer & Voiceover: Yours truly (abdris_elba)
Photographer: Mark Clennon (@mark.c)
Model: Amairaa Vee (@amiraavee)
Sound Engineer: Riston Diggs

Abdris Elba, B.S. in Advertising - University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Ph.D. in Trolling is a SQL/BI developer, aspiring voiceover actor and living proof that the chicken indeed comes before the egg.