The Keys To Authentic Living | The Power Of Authenticity (Part III)

Transcript

For this episode I’m going to bring it back full circle to some of the themes that I mentioned in part I, those themes being self-expression, purpose and meaning.

Let’s start with self-expression.

Here’s the thing about authenticity, if we want to stay consistently true to who we are, to truly live a life a self-expression as I defined it in part I, a life of meaning, then that means that we need to embrace change.

Because to be authentic means to consistently act in ways that are congruent with who we truly are, meaning with our personal values, desires and needs, not sporadically, but consistently, day in and day out. But here’s the other thing, who we truly are, is constantly changing.

Now here we’re touching upon a complex idea which is that of the nature Self, an idea that has perplexed to say the very least both scientists and philosophers alike, myself included. It’s a truly endlessly fascinating idea and topic to investigate within oneself because of the paradox that the Self is. It’s both an illusion and yet a reality, experientially speaking.

I say this to say that I recognize that the very the topic of authenticity that we’re now exploring is itself treacherous grounds so to speak, because it hinges on this illusory and elusive nature of a Selfhood. But, however wobbly the grounds of exploration may be, just because this conscious Self that we think ourselves to be is a mirage constructed by the mind, it doesn’t make it any less real, not in terms of how I define reality. Just because something is psychological in nature it doesn’t make it less real for me. From one perspective the Self is absolutely real, and yet from another perspective I recognize that the Self is also an illusion.

The level of reality that I’m addressing here is our experiential reality, which is both a subjective reality and yet a universal reality, because it’s one we all partake in as Human Beings.

So let’s about the Self right now.

The nature of the Self that I’m speaking of here, is the individual Self, I’m not referring to the Universal Self, that I Am that I Am which is the sum total of consciousness, the Source of our Being. I'm speaking of the individual sense of self as as an identity that we feel ourselves to be. And this Self is not a fixed static entity, the nature of this Self is a fundamentally fluid and ever changing one.

This sense of Self that we feel ourselves to be is one that emerges out of several components that are in a constant interplay with one another, it’s an interplay of our opinions, beliefs, our needs, our likes, dislikes, values, passions, memories and so forth, these are what define the Self, the Human Self. And it’s the interaction of these different elements within us combined with the contrasting effect of other people, of other people’s opinions, likes, dislikes, values, etc, that give us a feeling of individual Selfhood.

So know that we’ve briefly established the nature of the Self I’m speaking of, let’s get back to what I said earlier about embracing change.

Everything changes in life. Life is in a constant flux of change, and you are no exception. So because we know that the Self, who we are, is defined by our values, likes, passions, opinions and so forth, we know that this Self is something that is going to change, because as we grow and evolve, so do our values for examples. What mattered to us more than anything as teenagers, will in all likelihood not matter that much to us when we are in our 20s, or 30s, or 40s, and beyond. Our values may change, our likes may change, and our opinions will change. And while some people change to a much greater degree than others, the reality is that we all change to some degree, even if that degree is not immediately perceptible to us or others. Because that’s life. And like life, we are ever changing and ever growing beings.

And on our journeys, as we heal and grow, sometimes we discover that what will actually deeply fulfill us, is not at all what we thought we wanted, what we thought would fulfill us, and it’s certainly not at all what we have been pursuing thus far. And this is where change comes in, this is the crossroad that life presents to us. Are we going to embrace this truth that has been revealed to us, and course correct so that we can stay or get back into alignment with our Soul’s blueprint and mission, or are we going to resist the changes that life is calling us to make, and keep pursing those things that are not meant for us ?

And this change is not always an easy one to make, because as Humans, we can become so invested in the life that we’ve built for ourselves, so invested in who we think we are, in what we thought we wanted for ourselves in the past, that we desperately cling to those things, even when those things have revealed themselves to not be in alignment with who we are today, with our Soul’s path. And we cling for several reasons, one of them being that we may have invested so much of our time and energy into either a relationship, or a project, or a career path, whatever it is, that we don’t want it to go to waste. We don’t want to let it go because then we would feel it was all for nothing, and it’s perfectly natural to feel this way, I understand this impulse to want to hold on, and I also understand the suffering that results from not letting go of what is no longer serving us.

So that’s one reason, another reason we hold on is because we feel that if we were to let go of that career, or those dreams, desires and relationships that are not in alignment with our path, it would mean that we somehow failed, and that we’re failures. And being seen as a failure in today’s society that constantly preaches the gospel of success, the gospel of the winner, that’s seen as a fate worse than death for many of us. Especially those of us who were told we were good for nothing and would amount to nothing. So we cling, we cling to save face. Rather live a lie than to be a failure in their eyes, rather death than shame. Some of you will know exactly what I mean by this.

There’s a verse in the Tao Te Ching which says “Know when to stop. Knowing when to stop averts trouble” This is such a wise verse, and one that we can apply this in this specific context, of knowing when to abandon certain things, when to let go of a path, a project or a relationship that is no longer right for us. I hear a lot being said today about always seeing something through to the end, always finishing what you start, and there is value in this, definitely but this perspective rarely takes into consideration the reality that we are ever changing beings, and so are our desires and values. And so what was right for us at one stage of our life, will not necessarily be right for us in the next stage. And not only that but it doesn’t take into consideration the truth that what many people are pursuing today, what they’ve built their entire life upon, is not even in alignment with who they are, what truly fulfills them.

There’s so much to be said for the opposite of always seeing something through to the end, for knowing when to stop. There’s so much power and wisdom in knowing when to let go, when to abandon things that are no longer serving us. Because forcing ourselves to continue down a path that is simply not right for us anymore, if it ever was, only brings suffering, I can tell you that right now.

This reminds me actually of that scene from Cinderella, when Cinderella’s sisters are trying on the glass slipper and it doesn't fit, but they’re trying to force it to fit. One sister even says “I’ll make it fit.” Isn’t that what we do ? We do this in all areas of our lives, with relationships that don’t fit us, a career that doesn’t fit us, an environment or a course of study that simply doesn’t fit. And we know it doesn’t fit and yet we say to ourselves “I’ll make it fit” We force things and that’s madness, if the shoe don’t fit then it doesn’t fit, and nothing we do will make the shoe fit.

The more we learn to let go and release what doesn’t serve us the easier this process becomes. And it’s very painful at first, trust me I know how painful it is, and we’re also going to have many first times on our path, the first time we let go of the life we had planned, the first time we let go of a version of ourselves, the first time we let go a meaningful relationship perhaps, or a desire, or items, you name it, there are so many first times, but the more we do it, the easier it becomes. It might still feel painful to let go of something or someone you want to let go of to stay alignment with your path, no matter how many times you’ve done it, but I can tell you that it does get easier, and having done it myself so many times now, I’ve found that the process starts to feel much more liberating and invigorating than it does painful, even though there is still pain sometimes.

Because this process of change, of changing and clearing away everything internally and externally that is not in alignment with who we are can feel incredibly painful, confusing, destructive, and disorienting, to say the least, but on the flip side it can also feel incredibly exciting, transformative, rejuvenating and beautiful.

And this is where adopting an open and surrendered attitude will probably serve us the most in life, we must be open to who we are today, right now in the present moment, not who we were yesterday.

There’s a sense of security that we humans get from our memories, meaning from having a consistent and cohesive idea of Self, a consistent and cohesive idea of what we think we want, that doesn’t change much overtime, but this a pseudo-security because as we’ve seen we are subject to the laws of change.

When I use the word consistency, when I say that being authentic is remaining consistently true to who we are, I don’t mean it to say staying consistent to who we’ve been and to a rigid idea of Self, but consistent rather to the idea of authenticity, to the truth, whatever that truth is, meaning that whatever we are today, we are going to embrace that and be true to that. We’re going to surrender to who we are today, and not hold ourselves hostage to who we were in the past.

It’s important to allow ourselves the freedom to change, the freedom to change our minds, to outgrow certain opinions, to outgrow certain relationships that no longer serve us and to even outgrow careers. Because when we don’t allow ourselves to change, that’s another bar in our prison bars that we’ve added, and the more we do this, the more the walls of this prison continue to shrink until it starts to feel unbearable.

So whatever it is today that we are called to do today, we need to honour that because that is our authenticity, this is the truth of who we are today. And the truth of who we are today, will most likely not be the truth of who we were yesterday, or who we will be tomorrow, it might be, but it might also not.

We don’t owe anyone consistency with our past selves, with who people have known us to be. You don’t owe anyone a sense of continuity with who you’ve been, you don’t owe people an explanation for your choices or who you are today, you don’t owe anyone a damn thing. But you do owe yourself everything, you owe it to yourself to be honest with yourself about what you want and who you are today, and what is most meaningful to you. That you do.

In part I, I spoke about how society wants us to fit neatly and nicely into certain boxes and roles so that they can define us and limit us by and in these roles, but we can also do that to ourselves. We can also trap ourselves into such roles, and hold ourselves captive within these ideas of who we thought we were, what we thought we wanted, or who we should be.

And that’s why self-awareness and self-knowledge are crucial pillars to authenticity, because if we’re not careful, we can very easily live life on auto pilot and continue doing what we’ve done, simply because we’ve always done it, not even realizing, that this thing we may be doing, it doesn’t even fulfill us anymore. Most people live their lives on auto-pilot, which is why you have a society where so many people are in this rat race, chasing someone else’s idea of success, not even realizing what’s happening. But if you want to lead an authentic life you need to become self-aware and check in with yourself, because it's so easy to lose sight of what matters most to us in life.

And that’s really what it means to live life on your own terms.

Self-knowledge is a pre-requisite to living life on your own’s terms. It’s impossible to live life on your own terms without first knowing who you are. It’s only once you have gotten clear on who you are, what you value, what is most meaningful to you, what you really want, that now you get to choose the terms of your own life. Now you get to consciously live life on your own terms rather than slavishly accepting the terms someone else has set for you.

And what’s important to always keep in mind about Self-knowledge is that this is something that is consistently cultivated and attended to like a garden.

And that’s why self-knowledge and self-awareness are not static achievements to be attained only once, instead they are dynamic achievements that must be continuously cultivated, otherwise we fall into stagnation, and unconsciousness.

And this takes time, courage, the courage to look in the mirror and be honest with ourselves, and a lot of solitude, but this is crucial to us being able to embody our most authentic self. Once we’ve garnered all of this self-knowledge, if we consistently apply what we have learned about ourselves then we will slowly but surely build a solid foundation in all areas of our life, and this will be a foundation of truth, it won’t be one that is based on lies and trauma.

So, if in this process of self-discovery, you find that you’ve outgrown a passion, a desire, or even a dream that you once had, or a relationship then let it go. Some things and some people are only meant to be in our lives for a season, not a lifetime, and I know it can be painful in the moment to let go, but I promise that the new life that is waiting for you, of which these changes are a messenger of, will bring you much greater fulfillment than that thing, path or person could’ve ever brought you.

So allow yourself to outgrow yourself, because that’s what we’re supposed to be doing. And then allow yourself to outgrow yourself again, and again, and again, ad infinitum.

Let go of who you thought you were and the life you thought you wanted, because in a lot of cases, the life that is actually meant for you, the path that will actually bring you the greatest level of fulfillment, joy and peace, has nothing to do with what you thought you wanted or with what you thought your life was going to look like. In most cases.

And those of us who have been deeply, profoundly wounded and traumatized in childhood know this better than anyone. Once we embark on our healing journey, and start the process of healing our inner child, reparenting ourselves, and healing other wounds, we realize that this process of healing is actually what is helping us to come back home to the truth of who we are.

When we’re still carrying around these massive unhealed and unadressed traumas and wounds, those are what compel us to lead inauthentic lives, to make inauthentic choices, unbeknownst to us, it’s those unhealed traumas that cause us to chase things or people that are not in alignment with our highest good, or to chase someone else’s idea of success, to live someone else’s life, and so on and so forth.

Many desires that people hold today, are actually trauma responses, their artificial desires so to speak. Let me say it again, many desires that people hold today, are actually trauma responses. They are not authentic soulful desires that reflect the truth of who we really are, and what our Soul is here to do.

And speaking of what our Soul is here to do, let’s now switch gears and talk about our calling, this is going to be the final topic for this conversation.

In part I, I touched on the relationship between authenticity and meaning, and more specifically the relationship between authenticity or our calling, those things that we feel irresistibly compelled to do.

Our calling is something that naturally emerges from the knowing of who we are, once we have all of this self-knowledge that I've spoken of in this series, our calling will become unmistakably clear to us. It will feel like a clear inner knowing, an inner conviction that this is what I’m supposed to be doing right now.

And I say right now because remember that could change. As we grow and evolve so does our calling, so does our Mission grow and evolve, it might stay the same for the duration of our time here on Earth, but it might also not, the key is to not cling to any one path but just stay open, open to what our Soul, what life is calling us to do in this very moment, and to just act on the guidance.

So, let’s get practical here, and talk about how does one actually find their calling ? How we find our calling is a highly individualized process, it looks different for everyone, but there are some questions that we can ask ourselves that will put us on this path of discovering what we’re being called to do.

A part from the obvious questions like what am I passionate about, what brings me joy, what really fulfills me, I really want you to look at your talents, and ask yourself, what am I talented at ? What comes so naturally to me, that I don’t even realize that this is a talent ? Because remember what comes naturally to you doesn’t always come naturally to others, and that’s what makes it talent. And talent comes in all shapes and sizes, and the reason I want you to look at your talents, is because our talents are always intertwined with our calling in life. They are the vehicle through which we fulfill our Mission. So when we find our talents, we’re that much closer to discovering our calling, if we haven’t already, but our talents give us a pretty strong idea of what we’re here to do.

And we all have talents, it’s just a matter of recognizing what those are, and also honoring those gifts and talents. The tragedy is that a lot of the times we don’t even honor our own talents and gifts, we devalue them, constantly.

In our society today a lot talent goes unrecognized and unappreciated because it doesn’t fit within a specific mold. And I’m going to quote a brilliant man here called Sir Ken Robinson, who spoke a lot about talent. This man has changed my life for the better in so many ways and I will forever be grateful to him for the impact he’s had in my life. So here is the quote:

“Human resources are like natural resources; they're often buried deep. You have to go looking for them, they're not just lying around on the surface. You have to create the circumstances where they show themselves.”

― Ken Robinson

By Human Resources, what he’s referring to is talent. So now the question is, how do we create these circumstances by which our talents will get revealed to us ?

Well, we do this firstly, by getting curious about ourselves, by engaging in introspection, and by asking ourselves, like I said earlier, what are my talents ? And if you’re having a hard time determining what you’re talented at, get feedback from others because often we are so involved in ourselves, in our gifts and talents that most of the time we don’t even recognize that what comes naturally to us, doesn’t come naturally to others, and that this is in fact a talent. So if that’s you, then I encourage you to get feedback to help you.

Secondly, the way we create these circumstances by which our talents will get revealed to us, is by simply being open and willing to explore, by trying out things, by acting on our intuition, on those Soul’s nudges we feel.

Be open to trying different things in life, and act on those things that your Soul is calling you to do, even if you don’t know where it’s going to lead you, that’s not important. So if for example, you feel called to go to business school, then go to business school, and if you don’t currently have the means for that, pray to God, to your higher self, your spiritual team, for help so that you’re able to act on this Soul guidance.

Because here’s the thing, it might not be that you’re meant to be a business man or business woman, but you might just discover something about yourself at that school, you might learn skills that you need that will help you fulfill your calling, or you might discover a passion that you have, or a talent that you have which is your true calling.

And so maybe the reason your Soul called you to go to that business school in the first place, wasn’t so that you could become a business man or business woman, but because it knew that a particular talent or passion you held, that was buried deep within you, could only be brought out and revealed to you, by you being in that scholastic environment. And that was the real reason you were called to go to business school.

So the point I’m making here, is to try different things that you feel called to explore in life without being attached to the outcome, and see how these fit with your Soul, because out of all of those things that you try, there will be some, at least one, that deeply resonates with your Soul, where you feel this is it. Yeah you might love that other thing, but you really love this one, and not only do you love it, but you’re pretty damn good at it, and you feel at home when you do this thing.

Because our calling is something that we feel at home in, it feels so natural to us, we feel very fulfilled and comfortable in this field, and by comfortable I don’t mean complacent, but comfortable like the comfort you may feel when you’re in a loving home, that this is where you belong, and there’s no place else you’d rather be. Because there’s no place like home. Your calling feels the exact same way. Your calling is like the shoe that fit. the others might have been a bit too tight, or a bit too big, but your calling fits you just right. perfectly.

I remember watching a talk by Sir Ken Robinson where he said that you can be very skilled at something, and yet not love it. And this is very true, I've experienced this in my own life, I'm sure you have in yours too, being very skilled at something and yet not loving it, not feeling at home doing it. Because skill is not the only requirement that is needed for us finding our calling, or being in our element as sir ken Robinson puts it, you also have to love what it is that you’re doing, so much so that you can’t see yourself doing anything else.

In his book The Element: How Finding Your Passion Changes everything, which I highly recommend by the way, Sir Ken Robinson says:

“The Element is the meeting point between natural aptitude and personal passion.”

― Ken Robinson

This natural aptitude is our talent, and when talent meets passion, you have your calling. That’s why I think it’s more effective to ask ourselves first, what are my talents ? And once we’ve found what we’re talented in, we can then explore our talents, and see where they lead us, because our talents will lead us to our passions, they will lead us to those things that bring us the most fulfillment, where we feel that fire of passion.

And I use the word fire deliberately because our calling, our passions, really do feel like a fire. When you’re engaged in it, it’s like you’re tapped into something much bigger than yourself, and you feel so energized, so full of life, so full of energy, you feel full of fire and passion for what you’re doing, that you can do it for hours and hours and hours, to the point where you even forget to eat sometimes. Like you’ll be working at this right, fully absorbed in it, only to look up at time and realize, damn, is that the time, did I really just spend 6 hours, 8 hours on this thing, and forget to eat and drink ?

I’m sure you’ve all heard the quote “Find a job you enjoy doing, and you will never have to work a day in your life.”

That’s really the truth. Because remember that what you enjoy doing, what you enjoy devoting yourself to for hours on end, others might hate it, it will feel like grueling work for them, even soul crushing work at times, but not for you. For you that thing you’re doing is life giving, its giving back to you, it’s giving you back energy, and life, even as you work hard on it. So even though it is hard work, it doesn’t feel that way for you, for you it feels play, for you it feels like fun and passion, because you love it and you’re good at it, great at it, that’s your calling.

When people are in alignment with their calling, magic begins to happen. We begin to literally change lives for the better, and thus change the world, because our individual callings in this lifetime are also designed for the wellbeing of others, not just ourselves.

And that’s why authenticity is so powerful, because of it’s ability to create real, powerful lasting changes in our world. Because to be in this state of alignment with our calling requires for us to be in alignment with the truth of who we are and what we’re here to do, and this alignment has ripple effects in all areas of our lives, including other people’s lives.

One of the most regrettable things that we tend to do as Human Beings, is our tendency to grossly underestimate our capacity to change the world, not for what we do, but merely for who we are. Our legacies aren’t only about the things that we do in the world and physically leave behind, although that is a part of it, but it’s mainly about who we are.

We’re here to create an impact not just by things that we do, but for who we are. I don’t know if many people fully understand, that merely who you authentically are can dramatically and irreversibly change someone’s life for the better, without you even having to say a word. Just your presence in someone’s life, your energy can powerfully change their life for the better, beyond even what we can consciously see and understand. And I know this is true, because I’ve had several people say to me, that without me even saying anything in particular, just my presence and who I was in their life, completely changed their life for the better, and some actually said it completely transformed their lives actually, that nothing will ever be the same again.

And here I’m just speaking here about our essence, the power of the energy that we radiate to others from being in alignment with who we are, but then when you begin to share your talents, your skills, your genius, your knowledge, your wisdom, all that you have to give, and you channel all of that into serving Humanity, do you realize what an extraordinarily transformative impact you can have on another ? And can you imagine if everyone on this planet was operating from that place, that place of truth, authenticity and purpose ?

The most powerful impact that we have and that we will always have, is primarily by example, by authentic embodied being of our truth and of our purpose.

I used to wonder how me simply being myself could help anyone in the world, I questioned for a very long time, the value that I had to offer this world, if any at all. And it’s only when I started to embrace my authentic self in my journey and get into alignment with my mission, that I witnessed the powerful impact that authenticity can have on others as well as myself.

So I just want to say if you’re doubting your value, the value of your gifts of your voice, don’t be so certain that you of yourself, as you are, have nothing to give the world. This isn’t true, we all have something to give. And this is one of the many negative impacts that trauma has on us, it deeply wounds our self-esteem and our innate knowing that we are valuable, and we have something of value to offer this world. We are not good for nothing, as some of us were told. We’re not, that was a lie.

We’re almost never going to be fully aware of the extent of the impact that we’ve had on others and on the world for simply being our truest selves and doing what we’re called to do, but it doesn’t mean that the impact didn’t occur. Sometimes we will be aware of this, because people will tell us or we’ll see it, but most of the time we’ll have no idea.

To illustrate my point, I’m going to link in the show notes a video called “Spot Your Soulmate Flower” it’s an extract from a film called Adaptation. It’s a great film, a funny film, and if you’ve ever written a screenplay in your life, then you’ll find this film to be very relatable. The screenplay for this film I’m talking about was written by Charlie Kaufman, an artist that I simply adore and greatly admire. He also wrote a film called Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind, which has been a favorite of mine for years now and I highly recommend it.

But in the film Adaptation, which the scene spot your soulmate flower is from, John Laroche, the name of the character in the video, is speaking about flowers and pollination, and how every flower has a certain relationship with every insect that pollinates it, that every insect has a soulmate flower.

This is such a beautiful scene, and when I saw it I thought “Wow what a perfect analogy to use in the case of authenticity.” When you watch the scene, I want you to think of everything he’s saying about insects pollinating flowers as an analogy for us being our authentic selves in the world.” So if you want to right now, pause the video, and go watch that video, but if you want to do that later, I’m going to read to you a part of what he says in the video, so that you can understand the point that I'm making. He says

“Neither the flower nor the insect will ever understand the significance of their lovemaking, and how could they know that because of their little dance, the world lives, but it does. By simply doing what they’re designed to do, something large and magnificent happens, in this sense they show us how to live, how the only barometer you have is your heart, how when you spot your flower you can’t let anything get in your way.”

I mean.

This is so beautiful and it’s so apt for our talk on authenticity. Because like these insects, we all have certain flowers meaning certain positions in the world, certain roles that only we can pollinate that only we can fulfill.

We all have a specific impact on others that only we can have, we all have soulmate minds so to speak that only we can spark and affect and change. So when we follow our bliss as Joseph Campbell put it, when we are true to who we are, and do exactly what we are designed to do as, what is right for us, what only we can do, not only do we grow and experience personal fulfillment and joy, but we also cause the world and beings around us to grow and flourish thanks to our authentic self-expression, exactly like the insects and the flowers.

So if for example you want to start a podcast and talk about a topic, but you talk yourself out of it because you say “Well no everyone’s doing this, or everyone’s talking about this topic, it’s already been done, my ideas aren’t valuable.”

First of all, no it hasn’t already been done, because it hasn’t been done by you. Listen, we need many different people talking about the same thing for several reasons, firstly we’re not all going to approach the same topic from the same lens, we’re going to approach it from our own unique perspective and that is what is valuable. Nobody has your unique perspective, and only you can share that. The value is not in us being right or wrong, it’s is in the diversity of perspectives about the same topic, that’s what helps us gain a greater understanding of the topic at hand, and of ourselves and life in general. If we only had one perspective on the topic at hand, we wouldn’t be able to grow as much, compared to if we had many different perspectives on the same thing.

So that’s the first thing, the second thing is, we’re not all going to resonate with everyone. I’m not going to be everyone’s cup of tea, I know that right now, the same way that you’re not going to be everyone’s cup of tea, and that’s fine. Sometimes you need to hear a message from a specific person for it to really hit you and affect you. The same message could be coming from a different person but it has no impact on you when you hear it, it doesn’t rock your world, because for some reason that person didn’t do it for, they way they spoke and delivered their message wasn’t for you, it was for someone else but not you.

There is someone in this world right now who needs to hear a message that will help them grow and overcome certain challenges, and you may be that perfect messenger for that individual.

So by us simply being ourselves, living our lives, minding our own businesses, doing what we’re called to do, that that itself can have a transformative impact on someone. You might for example be a muse to someone. That could be one of your impacts. You might spark someone’s creativity, and they might create something that has a profound impact on the world, something that would never have occured had it not been for you affecting them in a way that only you could’ve, and you might never be aware of this, you might live your entire life completely oblivious to this, but nonetheless the impact, the pollination happened, and that’s all that matters. And it’s so important to trust this, to trust the process, to trust that somehow us simply being ourselves and sharing who we are with the world, is having a profound impact on the world around us, in ways that we can’t even understand yet.

Our inability to see authenticity’s far reaching impact in the world often leads us to fallaciously underestimate the power of authenticity, the power of who we are, the power of our voices, and what we have to offer this world, and this is such a tragedy. Because it robs the world of so many things that it needs to thrive. There’s someone right now in this world suffering that you could help, someone that your voice could heal, uplift and nurture. Someone who might be on the verge of ending their life, but then they see you, they experience your art work, or your voice, or whatever it is you do, and you give them hope and they decide they’re going to keep going. There are people right now in this world waiting for us, waiting for us to step into our gifts and calling.

We have agreed to serve, awaken and help to heal certain Souls here on the planet, and those Souls are waiting for us, waiting for us to show up. So for the sake of those Souls, I hope you take the time get to know who you are, or get to know more deeply who you are, and that you find the courage within you to share who you are with the world, to step into your calling, because I need you, whoever you are listening, even if I never meet your ass, I still need you, the same way you need me, and the same way we all need each other. We all need each other to show up in the world, and fulfill those roles and positions that only we can, those roles that we were born to fulfill.

What hope do we have as a planet, as a species, if we keep all of our gifts, all of our dreams, our genius, our voices, all that we have to offer to ourselves, hidden away in the shadows ?

I am here today, able to do what I am doing now, because of people of the past, because of their contributions, their dreams, because of them being authentically themselves despite their fears, which we all have, and despite the backlash, despite all of that they found the courage within themselves to share themselves with the world.

We are all here today because of these great people of the past who have dared to dream, dared to dream of a better future for themselves and the planet, and they had the audacity and the boldness to make those dreams become a reality, and in so doing they have paved the way energetically and physically for all of us to be able to dream and do those things that our Soul calls us to do, with less and less restriction, and this is not for a moment lost on me. Not for a moment, and this is why also, there’s no such thing as self-made. You know this idea of the self-made person, or the self-made billionaire there is no such thing, that’s a lie, and an illusion, because in reality we all owe our lives and successes to several people, both alive and dead.

Their dreams and contributions continue to live on within us, and in our world.

And this is why I made the promise to myself, that I would allow myself this freedom to be who I came here to be, to do the unique work that only I can do and to show up.

So whatever your calling is, do it not only for yourself, but also for future generations, pave the way for the ones who have yet to come.

The beauty in being committed to embodying and expressing the truth of who you are, why you’re here, and what you’re here to do, is that when all is said and done, you’ll know that yours was a life well lived, exquisitely lived, and that when the time comes for you to leave this Earth, you’ll be able to say

“I stand before the world as myself, boldly and unpologetically. I have shared all that I could give with this world. I have lived as only I could’ve lived, I have created as only I could’ve create, I have spoken as only I could’ve spoken, and I have blessed the world by doing so, as only I could’ve. I have fulfilled the purpose for which I was born, my work is now done.”

And on that note, so is my work for this series.

Uploaded on October 22, 2024