I recently watched the film ‘Michael’, featuring the life of a superstar from my childhood. Seeing Jaffer perform on screen brought back a flood of memories, but it also made me look past the entertainment. It got me to think about the duality we all carry: the person we present to the world versus who we actually are when the lights go down.

I got intrigued by MJ’s iconic number “Beat It”. On the surface, it’s a high-octane track about a street fight. But if you look deeper, it perfectly captures the silent, internal battle we fight every single day within ourselves - the conflict between the Actor ( the ego that performs for the external validation) and the Soul ( our true, quiet center that seeks internal peace).

And here is how I decipher the stoicism behind “Beat It”…

“You better run, you better do what you can… Don’t be a macho man. You wanna be tough…”

The Actor : The external world continuously feeds us with a narrative of what strength looks like - hustle until we bleed, defend our status, and never show vulnerability. The Actor within us desperately wants to play this part to gain validation.

“It doesn’t matter who’s wrong or right, just beat it”

The Soul : The ego loves to litigate, argue, and prove its worth to the crowd. But the soul operates on quiet utility. It realises that winning an ego-driven argument is meaningless. True self-mastery is having the discipline to walk off the stage.

“You have to show them that you’re really not scared. You’re playin’ with your life, this ain’t no truth or dare”

The cost of performance: We spend our energy trying to appear bulletproof to a world that’s not even watching. When we let the actor run the show, we gamble our peace of mind and deepest focus just to maintain an illusion.

What’s your take?

Every day, we all wake up to this internal theatre. The world asks us to perform, but our peace depends on our ability to stay grounded.

When you reflect back this weekend