Looking For The Real You

If you are anything like me, you are constantly searching for ways to be more, do more or have more in life.  If I actually had everything that I dreamed or thought about, I'd never have to lift a finger to do anything again in life.  The more I look at that scenario though, the more unrealistic it seems.  The point I'm making here is that we have to be constantly looking forward to what could be rather than just being happy with the status quo.  Many people, when asked if they are happy with their life or the direction that they have chosen will say that they are satisfied with the way that things are.  They say this because they are afraid of change, or the difficulties that it may bring.  Sure change is challenging, but it is by constantly re-inventing ourselves, that we move forward into our possibilities.

It is this process that I believe is crucial in human development.  The process of never being satisfied with the way things are today.  That is the very reason that I started writing E-motion when I did.  I was at a place in my life that just seemed stagnant.  I was in a job that I truly loved, but because of my experience and because I knew it so well, it was just becoming routine.  It wasn't challenging for me any more.  This "routine" that I was in was sapping the life and enthusiasm from me.

One evening after a class that I conducted, one of the participants asked me if there was something that I could send him regularly to keep him motivated and focused on being and staying positive.  I didn't have any idea what I could send to him, but I said yes I'd try to find something for him anyway.  I went back to my office that evening and looked at some of the material that I had on disk and in my bookshelves, but I couldn't find anything that I thought he's want to see or read.  I realized that what he needed or wanted I didn't have so I would have to create something for him.

My biggest dilemma was, Just what would I create?  What would it be about?  What would I say, and how would I say it?  What I discovered was, the questions that I had been asking myself in my quest to re-invent myself, were the questions that would answer his. 

This started me thinking in a whole new direction.  With this direction, I had to re-examine many things. Things like my attitudes, my values, my dreams and aspirations now took on new meaning, what I found to be motivating for me, I had to find a way to communicate that to other people.  I was looking at my whole life through a microscope, trying to see patterns or learning examples that I could share with others.  I was suddenly totally involved with this project.

The more I examined my own life, the more I felt that I could improve.  Relationships were now much more important to me, and I became much more positive and passionate in all that I did.  All of this, because someone asked me a question.

Some people fear not the question, but the answer.  We hate to hear the bad news, because they somehow feel that if they don't hear it, then it can't be happening, and they won't have to deal with the problem.  Living their lives with their head in the sand was becoming their way of life.  I guess that you could say that in their cases, they thought that Ignorance was bliss.

It is this thought or the fear of the answer that keeps people in the dark about themselves or their potential.  They seem to get in a rut in life and they just accept it, never realizing that there just could be a better way, if only they expected more of themselves.  They get in a "Good Enough" mentality that only encourages mediocrity.  We could change the quality of our lives today....right now, if only we'd follow a few simple guidelines:

1. Expect more from ourselves.

2. Do our very best in everything that we do.

3. Ask ourselves better questions.

4. Be prepared to accept the answers, and then improve on them.

5. Realize that we are the only ones under and in our skin, so we have to learn to accept and like ourselves.

This week, take the time to re-examine who you are, and your direction in life.  Are you where you wanted to be? Are you living the life that you imagined?  Ask yourself the kind of questions that will uncover your passions, abilities, dreams and desires.  Why not become a prospector for success, and search for the gold within yourself.  Learn to recognize the difference between "fools" gold and real gold, and you will be closer to having and being the you that is really possible.  Don't be afraid of the question, welcome it, court it let it be the tool that creates who you want to be.

Make this your best week ever!