Celebrating Inspirational Women: Dr. Susan Blackmore
Life is wonderfully random sometimes. I was in a coffee shop in the city a few weeks back and struck up a conversation with a woman sitting next to me. Somehow, we started talking about consciousness (don’t ask me how) and she recommended Susan Blackmore’s short book on consciousness ‘Consciousness: A Very Short Introduction‘ . I’m glad she did; it’s a very stimulating and interesting read which certainly challenged my assumptions on the topic.
Dr Susan Blackmore is a freelance writer, lecturer and 
broadcaster. She studied psychology and physiology at Oxford University and has a PhD in parapyschology. She is also a Visiting Professor at the University of Plymouth. Her research interests include work on memes, meditation and consciousness – she no longer works on the paranormal.
Dr. Blackmore has written many books including The Meme Machine (1999)and recently, Zen and the Art of Consciousness (2011). In addition to her writing, she has also presented at conferences and on radio and television. I recommend watching her ted talk on a new kind of meme which is very engaging.
Inspired by her work, I invited Dr Blackmore to be this week’s featured guest. As is the format for these blogs, I asked her one question:
What is the best piece of career/life advice you’ve ever received?
She responded as follows:
“You can’t do everything”. This was one of my Mum’s favourite sayings. As a child I found her terribly annoying and bossy and difficult, and I’m sure she thought the same of me. I was always in trouble. So I tended to ignore her advice in all its forms. Nonetheless, half a century later, and especially now that she is dead, I remember those words “You can’t do everything”. “Everything” is now so much more than she could ever have dreamed of: our world is just so much more complex and we all have opportunities way beyond anything she could have imagined, let alone aspired to. Even so the old advice applies just the same, or even more so.
When I get yet another invitation to give a lecture, write an article, attend a conference, contribute to a book or whatever it may be, and I can’t fit them all in or choose which to do; or when I think I could visit somewhere I’ve never been, or learn kayaking, or go sailing or walk on Dartmoor (all clamouring to be done from where I live in south Devon), or I worry how useless I am and imagine I should do more charitable work or help other people more …or…. I just say to myself “You can’t do everything” and it is strangely comforting. Whoever we are and whichever time we have lived in there is always far more that could be done than one person can ever do. So I get on with whatever seems most appropriate at the time and thank her for the reminder.
This advice serves as a useful reminder I think, to be selective about what we choose to pursue at any given moment. Since we can’t be everywhere at once, it’s strangely helpful to remember that we simply can’t do it all, however much we may want to pursue many different options at the same time. Going down one road may mean, necessarily, that you can’t walk another.
So choose well and remember ‘you can’t do everything‘.
Many thanks to Dr. Susan Blackmore for her participation in this blog.
*Photo used with kind permission
