Can you hear the wild wind blow ?
Audentes fortuna iuvat.
Why does a vineyard need wind to produce good wine ?
In the early days of August 2023, I was driving on a bright and sunny morning throughout the endless vineyards of Châteauneuf-du-Pape, Courthézon, Sarrians, Vacqueyras… in Provence. Flitting around from one domain to another, tasting different wines and enjoying a little chat with the producers. During these warm days in the midst of summer, grapes are finishing their ripening, getting sweeter and more sugary every single day. Temperatures can rise as high as +40°C in the middle of the day.
As I was chatting with the owner of Clos du Mont-Olivet, I was very curious to know what she would call a great or an awful year, for wine producing. She remembered of an especially terrible year, that was caused by the absence of wind. Wind plays an underestimated and vital role : it circulates air. It creates movement. It chases humidity and renews the air. Without movement, grapes literary fester with the hot sun. They become unexploitable for wine.
And to me of course, this observation from nature translates to human existence. Movement is as essential to human life as wind is to good wine. To save you a complex explanation, just look at the visualisation below :
You are probably young if you’re reading this, which means you have plenty of decisions left to make. Some options will be risky, some won’t. But there is something more to it.
The thing is, there is a choice few people ever see. This choice is : Do you accept to keep doing what you are currently doing ? It is so easy no not change things, to let them carry you. But your life is in your hands, it is up to you to not get bogged down. It’s up to you to keep things moving. The world is vast, with so much for you to see. And leaving what you have always implies risks. But with higher risks come higher rewards. Audentes fortuna iuvat (Fortune favours the bold).
Depending on your decisions, of how much you love being safe, you will struggle more or less to escape the boredom zone. The price to pay to exit this area is upper ups and downer downs. Do not always play it safe. Play it smart instead, and do not be allergic to uncertainty. This is especially important to me, because I believe I would be very likely to remain, comfortably numb, in my comfort / boredom zone.
Be sure to have some wind blowing in your life. Do not stay in the same place for too long. Do not keep doing the exact same things for too long, don’t always listen and talk to the same people. Bring in variety, contrast, intensity, novelty, movement, action and risk.
95% of people will never sprint again past 30 years old. Will you be part of them ?
Paul
As I am writing this post I realize that it is an actualized version of an edition from December, read it through if you haven’t already :
