You are What You Can Do 🗽🦾🏗️

Published: Thu, 08/21/25

My actions are my only true belongings. I cannot escape the consequences of my actions. My actions are the ground upon which I stand.

– Thich Nhat Hanh

The philosopher Descartes once said, “I think, therefore I am.” Thinking is powerful—no doubt. But if you’ve lived through real struggle, you know thought alone won’t pay the bills.

I’d like to challenge the philosopher and say: “I can, therefore I am.”

Why? Because thinking is theory. Doing is proof.

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I spend hours imagining alternate futures, impossible technologies, and strong-willed and resourceful heroes. But here’s the thing: none of it matters if I don’t put words on the page. It’s not the brilliance of the idea that defines me—it’s my ability to do. To wrestle with the sentence until it sings. To finish the draft when the story fights back. That “action” is my evidence that I exist, not just in theory, but in practice.

And that’s true for all of us.

👗 Afrofuturist Fashion Design Challenge: Style the Future 👟

Where tradition meets technology. Where fabric becomes future.

Africa has always been a hub of bold design, color, and symbolism. From Kente to Shweshwe, Ankara to Maasai beadwork, fashion has told stories of lineage, culture, and power.

But what happens when solar textiles replace silk? When 3D-printed headdresses store ancestral memories? When clothing itself becomes interactive, intelligent, and alive?

🎯 In this challenge, you are invited to reimagine African fashion in the year 2125—through artwork, design, or storytelling.

✨ How to Enter:

Choose one or combine both formats below:

🎨 Visual Submission:
Submit a sketch, digital artwork, or AI-generated image of a futuristic African outfit. Your design should:

Blend traditional African styles (cuts, symbols, fabrics) with sci-fi or high-tech elements.

Consider functionality: What does the outfit do in the future? Is it adaptive, climate-smart, healing?

📝 Fashion Concept Description (Max 400 words):
Write a piece that explains:

The cultural roots of your design

The materials and technology used

How this fashion fits into a futuristic African society (e.g. ritual wear, urban streetwear, spacefaring regalia)

🧵 Inspiration Sparks:

*A Fulani cloak that shifts colors based on emotion

*Beadwork that functions as wearable data storage

*Gele that projects ancestral holograms

*Sand-proof desert gear powered by solar embroidery

*Rain-responsive mudcloth that cools or heats the body

🏆 Judging Criteria:

Afrofuturist Fusion: Does it blend traditional culture with forward-thinking tech?

Creativity & Concept Depth: Is it original, well-thought-out, and meaningful?

Visual or Descriptive Impact: Whether it's an image or a write-up, is it striking and memorable?

Storytelling Power: How well does the design reflect its wearer and their world?

🎁 Prizes:

🥇 First Place: $50 gift card + full feature in our newsletter + pro image mockup of your design

🥈 Second Place: $25 gift card + feature

🥉 Third Place: $10 gift card + honourable mention

📬 How to Submit:

Send your entry to marksmanstudios1@gmail.com
Subject line: "Afrofuturist Fashion Design Submission"
Attach your image and/or paste your write-up into the email.

📅 Deadline: 14th September 2025

👘 The future wears your imagination. What will Africa look like when tradition upgrades its wardrobe?

Action is identity.

What you can do says more about you than what you own, what you post about your plans, or even what you dream of. Action is the truest, purest proof of being.

Fear shrinks in proportion to your ability. Think about it: public speaking feels terrifying until you’ve done it enough times that your voice finds its power. Cooking a new dish is daunting until you’ve done it once, then twice, then without the recipe in front of you. Capability is the quiet antidote to fear—it’s not bravado, it’s competence.

The more you do, the less you doubt.

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You’re not your potential. You’re your practice.

People love potential. Teachers, bosses, even friends will hype you up as “full of promise.” But potential is a mirage. It’s fragile because it doesn’t exist yet.

But your actions, on the other hand, are real. It’s built. It’s the accumulated evidence of effort. It’s the awkward failures you pushed through until your muscles, your brain, and your heart learned something new. You don’t find yourself—you build yourself. And you build yourself by doing.

Skills are cheat codes for life.

Here’s something nobody told me growing up in Jamaica: every new skill you learn makes the next one easier. It’s called transfer of learning—what you master in one area spills over into others. Writing speculative fiction helped me improve my ability to express my ideas. Expressing my thoughts sharpened my ability to pitch ideas. Pitching made me bolder in negotiations. One skill stacked on another, and suddenly I had a toolkit I hadn’t planned for.

Life is weird like that.

Action compounds like interest.

When the world strips you down, your “can” remains.

Titles, money, even relationships—they can disappear in a blink. Ask anyone who’s lost a job, gone through a breakup, or had life sideswipe them. But your ability to adapt, to learn, to start again is what counts? That never leaves.

Survival experts talk about “mental kit” more than physical gear. Why? Because your brain is the one tool you can’t lose unless you stop using it. And unlike a shiny phone or fancy car, it appreciates over time—if you keep upgrading it.

The only real question is: what can you do now?

Forget “Who am I?” for a moment. A more practical, liberating question is: What can I do now that I couldn’t do last year?

And then: What’s next?

Because every time you add a new “action” to your life, you expand who you are. Not in theory. Not in imagination. In reality.

As poet Samuel Beckett said: “Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better.”

Action isn’t a side effect of life—it’s the engine.

So don’t just think about the story you want to write. Write a paragraph. Don’t just plan the fitness routine. Do the push-ups. Don’t just wonder if you could start the business. Take the first step, however small.

Because doing is what proves you’re alive.

You can, therefore, you are.

Peace, love and power.