The Kaleidoscope Project: March Challenge
This Month's Prompt: Permission
February’s Taking Action challenge was fantastic. People showed up, put themselves out there, and, well, they took action! If you took part, thank you and well done. If you didn’t, you’ve got another shot in March.
If you haven’t seen the roundup post that
has written you can check that out here:
This month, we’re tackling something just as important as action, and perhaps something that you need before you take it.
March’s Challenge: Permission
How often do we wait for some invisible sign that it’s okay to move forward? How many things have you put off because you felt like you needed someone else’s approval first?
This month, the prompt to explore is permission. What it means. What it changes. Where we need it, and where we really don’t.
Permission to try. Even if you’re not ready.
Permission to quit. Even if you’re supposed to keep going.
Permission to take up space. Even if you’ve been told to shrink.
Permission to do things badly. Because perfection is a lie.
Permission to change your mind. Because new information changes things.
Permission to stop asking for permission. Because, most of the time… you don’t actually need it.
You can take this in any direction you like. Seeing the different perspectives of everyone who takes part really is what makes this challenge magic.
Write a story, a journal entry, a poem, a song, an article, paint a picture, record a video or podcast. Whatever feels right. The challenge is open to anyone and everyone.
How to Join
Create something: a story, essay, poem, artwork, song, or whatever fits the theme. You have until the 31st March to get your entries in.
Tag myself and Moon Arica so we can see it. (Type @ and then our names)
Submit your entry to make it a little bit easier to keep track of entries (form link here). You can then use this as a directory to read other participants entries.
Share the challenge far and wide, the more entries the better, show some love to your fellow entrants as you see their entries being posted.
In early April, we’ll do a roundup post featuring the best responses, so if you want to be featured; stop waiting for a green light and just go for it.
Give yourself permission. See where it takes you.
Initially this was the end of this post, a simple introduction to the challenge, then I was going to craft my entry over the coming weeks, but with time left before it was scheduled to be published I started typing and why wait to post my entry in the future? So here is my entry, my waking up moment.
You Don’t Need Permission - You Just Need to Start
For a long time, I thought life was set up like a conveyor belt. You’re born, you go to school, you go to uni (or get a job if you’re in a rush), find a partner, have some kids, buy a house, work your arse off for decades, then, if you’re lucky, you get a few years of freedom before you die.
And I accepted it. I didn’t really question it, because that’s just life.
Well I am at the age now where I am seeing the people I have worked with retire and then within a matter of years drop dead. Having had hardly anytime to enjoy the life they lived. It's heartbreaking.
No one ever told me there were other options. No one ever sat me down and said, "You don’t have to live life on autopilot. You don’t have to stand on this conveyor belt just because that’s what everyone else is doing. You can step sideways and get off the track. You can build something new. You can carve your own path."
That just never really occurred to me, so, I did what was expected. I started ticking things off the list:
School✅
Uni✅
Job✅
Partner✅
Mortgage✅
Kids✅
Then through coincidence, serendipity, or something else, I started waking up.
The Slow Burn of Realisation
At first, it was small things. A relationship that was going nowhere, I walked away. I thought that was it, my big life shift. I changed a lot but I fell back into old patterns, letting life happen to me rather than actually living it.
Years went by. I was happy enough. No major complaints. But something was missing.
Then last year I started writing, or to be more accurate, first of all I started reading, and that lead me to writing.
Not because I had some grand plan to be an author, not because I thought I could make a living from it, but because I felt compelled to. Writing gave me clarity. It let me work through my own thoughts, let me see patterns in my life I hadn’t noticed before.
And once I saw them, I couldn’t unsee them.
I realised I had spent most of my life waiting.
Waiting for the right time.
Waiting for the right opportunity.
Waiting for someone, anyone, to give me permission to live differently.
But permission wasn’t coming. And it never would.
Because no one was stopping me. No one was blocking me. The only thing in my way was me.
So I started taking action.
I replaced doomscrolling with reading. I swapped TV for writing. I made the choice to actively improve myself, to push forward, to figure out what’s next. I still don’t know exactly where I’m going. But I do know this:
I’m done waiting. I have given myself permission to live instead of just exist.
The Lie You’ve Been Sold
Somewhere along the way, you were told that life has a set path. That success means following the blueprint, keeping your head down, working hard, and collecting a few Nice Things along the way, a house, a car, a holiday now and again: an unremarkable, comfortable existence.
But who wrote that rulebook?
Your parents? Your teachers? Your boss?
Life isn’t a race.
There’s no finish line.
The path in front of you isn’t the only one, it’s just the easiest one to see. The one that’s signposted, that keeps you on the main road.
People keep their heads down, not wanting to make a fuss. They get comfortable. They tell themselves, this is just how life is.
And that’s the biggest lie of all.
Life isn’t about existing. It’s about doing, living, experiencing, enjoying.
And if you’re stuck in a loop, waiting for the right time, let me spell it out for you:
This Is Your Sign.
You don’t need permission from anyone else. You never did.
Want to write a book? Start today. Want to change careers? Find a way, teach yourself a skill. Want to build something for yourself? Pick up the tools and build.
Oh, you have responsibilities so it's not that easy? So what! If you have kids, a mortgage, family… Find 30 minutes a day. That’s all it takes.
30 minutes a day of working toward something bigger. 30 minutes a day to stop waiting and start doing.
That’s how you change your life. Not all at once. Not in some big, dramatic leap. But by proving to yourself, every day, that you matter.
The biggest risk in life isn’t failure.
It’s never fucking trying.
It’s spending decades waiting for the right time, the right moment, the right circumstances, only to realise too late that it was always within your power.
So go take what’s yours. Build something for yourself. Give yourself permission to live.
And don’t look back unless it's to see how far you've come.
Join me in this months challenge on permission. I can't wait to see how other people's perspectives differ from my own.
You can check out the roundups to the previous months challenges below:
 | A guest post by
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This prompt caught me off guard actually lol. Being a corporate worker for the past 20 years, especially working in a law firm, we can't move a step without prior approvals. I guess it's why I'm rebelling now as I was tired of simply following orders and sometimes going nowhere when the leaders were not doing a good job.
It's very freeing to be able to do something without permission, so let me marinate this for a while and start posting entries.
Mark, thank you so much for this. What a reflection!
Thank you for saying that the linear path, the checklist of life goals, is a trap. Thank you for reminding us that even in small gestures, we can bring big changes to our lives and still feel we own it. Thank you for making this a space where failing is part of the process of trying and not a reason to be ashamed.
And most of all, thank you for motivating us to work on a piece that can be highly therapeutic!