If Ian Fleming Got Sick of James Bond, So Can You

The Atlantic just published a short article on how the creator of James Bond, Ian Fleming, got sick of his character at some point after writing several of the bestselling novels. By 1960, “he was sick of Bond and wondering how he could kill him off.”

Other famed authors have also gotten tired of their protagonists (all the more surprising given their commercial success):

• Agatha Christie of Inspector Poirot,
• Sir Arthur Conan Doyle of Sherlock Holmes,
• And more recently, Lee Child with Jack Reacher,
• Patricia Cornell with Kay Scarpetta,
• And perhaps even George R.R. Martin with his Games of Thrones characters, whose popularity has now apparently become a source of creative stress for the author.

If all these writers could become sick of their incredibly interesting, talented, and often successful characters — so can you with the idea of yourself.

And trust me, we’re all somewhat an idea — a role or character — we’ve built up. Therefore, we’re allowed to occasionally be fed up with our “me” characters and the everyday lives we’ve assembled.

We’re all so much more than any single role or circumstance; sooner or later, all roles, expectations, and stories we tell ourselves about who we are become stiffening. You can either be open to that likely occurrence and be willing to evolve, or you can try to suppress it, “stick to your guns,” and feel increasingly miserable.

Of course, some things can’t easily be changed, even if we do feel the call to reinvent ourselves. Most of us have bills to pay and family responsibilities. We have, I believe, affective responsibilities, too — responsibilities of the heart toward the people we love. (Even if one is, in the end, solely responsible for one’s happiness.)

But within our possibilities, we can all benefit from periodically shaking things up:

• Switching careers (even when doing so is scary),
• Changing where you live or where you do your remote work,
• Exploring a new hobby,
• If necessary, changing partners — or being single — or taking one up if you haven’t in a while,
• Getting an animal companion (it should go without saying, but please don’t do this unless you’re committed).

Allow yourself to look at the world through “new eyes,” as the trite quote by Marcel Proust goes.

It doesn’t have to be hard. Developing a new perspective of the world or yourself can be as simple as changing your physical surroundings. Re-locate. Move. Travel. Walk. Stir — or, yes, shake — yourself into something new and yet unknown.

In my own way, I’m doing this in my life now. Let me know how it goes in yours!