Destroy Your Reputation by Tannaz Hosseinpour

The other day I came across a poem by one of my favorite poets Rumi in which he said, “Run from what’s comfortable. Forget safety. Live where you fear to live. Destroy your reputation. Be notorious. I have tried prudent planning long enough. From now on I’ll be mad.”

The poem goes against everything we’ve learned growing up, which basically was advice on how to not ruin our reputation and to always care about what people think of us because somehow our lives are dependent on the opinion of others. Which made me think… what a reputation is even, like what does it even mean? Is there one fixed reputation that I can have in 

If I’m constantly worried about acting a certain way, talking a certain way, thinking a certain way my life, or do I have different reputations because if you ask person X about me, they’re going to have a different perspective of me than Person Y, and so on. That’s because people can only see others from the level of understanding and consciousness that they are vibrating at. This pretty much means that my reputation is just a compilation of other people’s thoughts about me based on their own level of awareness at that given time. How does that even make sense?in front of people, then when do I get to be me. And if I cant be myself, then how can I ever live life as an authentic human being? I’m pretty much a fake, and is that how I really want to live life?

Not anymore. I want to live life like myself. I want to move out of my comfort zone and into the unknown, into freedom from judgment, into freedom from self-criticism, into purpose. Is fitting in comfortable? Of course, it is. you’re doing everything right by society’s terms, but you’re slowly killing that creative burn within you. You’re slowly silencing your soul’s voice. You’re suppressing your inner voice’s desire to shine. Would you rather be pretending to live on the outside, but be dying on the inside. Or would you rather let go of your need to have society’s definition of a reputation, and step into your truth, so that you can shine from the inside. and when you shine from the inside, your light uplifts the people you were brought on this earth to uplift.

So now I understand what Rumi meant by being mad. He just meant that we should choose to live life as our true self, as our authentic selves. To show up to life exactly as we are, and who cares what people might think. If they want to call us mad and crazy, let them. I’d rather be mad and free, than a prisoner in someone else’s perception of me.

So today ask yourself, who do you want to live for, others, or yourself.

Thank you for reading,

Love & Light,

Tannaz Hosseinpour, Founder of Minutes on Growth Coaching

Tannaz Hosseinpour, founder of Minutes on Growth Coaching is a certified Relationship Coach and CBT practitioner specializing in personal development & relationships with a strong academic background in family mediation & dispute resolution law. She provides one-on-one coaching to individuals and couples.