We should all seek truth in one form or another in our experience of life. The path to truth for each of us is more than likely going to be unique to our lives and will not look the same for any two of us. Following your path to truth is going to be a one-of-a-kind journey. So follow it with passion and allow others to do the same. Life is too short to spend valuable time being anything less than authentic and practice truth in all areas of your life. Only you can decide what that means for you.
Stick to Your Path
My personal journey has taken many twists and turns on the path of my life. Many people have offered advice and direction about the right thing to do. In the end, the only person who has experienced this trip has been me, and in retrospect, I alone can gauge each lesson learned and benefit from the wisdom these events have provided.
At the time, it may not have been evident to me or anyone else the value of the moment, but there has never been an event that hasn’t given me something. A tool or piece of knowledge about the world or myself has helped the journey move along the path. Sometimes you have to fight against your own emotions and settled thoughts but when you look through that, put your emotions aside, you will see the value in our experience.
As you move down your path, listen and measure others’ suggestions and choose the actions that resonate with your heart. Once a decision is made, move with that choice with all that you have. Don’t develop a preconceived attachment to the result. Just accept the results and take the value from them.
Help Guide Others
There is no way that you can tell another exactly what to do. Their path is their own, and the experience and tools they need are unique to them. Even though you will all end up at the same destination, there is no “wrong” path to follow as long as you are not hurting someone else or limiting their lives. To support and encourage all people on their way. Some may get waylaid and stopped short of the ultimate destination, but that is their adventure, not yours. When asked, offer an honest assessment. When not asked, mind your own business and tend to your path. Be a shining example of how to live your life honestly and with a purpose.
Question everything and only accept those things that prove true. How do we learn? There are several different ways that we can infuse our minds and souls with new ideas and knowledge. However, each individual needs to determine the validity of each morsel of information for themselves, regardless of the source that is providing it. I don’t believe anything except after individual investigation and introspection have proven it to be so. Finding what is true for you is vital to living an honest and true life. What beliefs you accept will determine your reality.
Don’t Be a Sheep
Just because a message comes to you from an authority figure, that doesn’t make it true. When we accept these messages from teachers, leaders, parents, politicians, or any other authority figure without questioning and/or investigating, we are diminishing ourselves and our own individuality.
That doesn’t mean that all you have been told is untrue. It means that knowledge is a quest for understanding discovered through personal investigation and research. Each idea can be confirmed or disregarded on the merit that you discover it to possess. Each of us owes it to our intelligence to question and research all ideas and theories to establish their truth for us.
Too many people accept ideas automatically from educational programs or religious doctrine. Without investigation and proof of the truth of something, it is just empty words.
Test, Investigate, Prove
Don’t allow other people to cheapen your existence and value to the world by accepting ideas without properly questioning them first. Without setting out to provide yourself with the proof of the existence of something or the validity of an idea, it should be considered invalid.
The alternative to this is to accept the truth of something blindly and without question. Once you believe that something is true, it will affect you and influence your life. Don’t you owe it to yourself and those you will influence to be as positive about information as you can? We are not designed to question, but it is through questioning that all proof is discovered. Look into your heart, mind, and body for the actual truth of things.
Destiny in Truth
It is our destiny on our journey to choose our own path. That is a path in movement as well as in thought. Each idea that we know is true and valid will affect all things that come into our lives. So think, test, prove and grow in your own way. Listening to all, but believing only those things that are proven true. That is the way of your own individual path.
I heard this phrase today, “the courage to be imperfect,” and for some reason, it stuck with me.
How much time in life do we spend worrying about being perfect in all we do? How often do we succeed, and what would it mean if we were perfect? All of these thoughts had me feeling like my head was spinning off. So I thought I had better write about it quickly!
How much time in life do we spend worrying about being perfect in all we do?
At first, I thought, really, this can’t be very much time, but in reality, I know it is significant. If you are a writer like me, then every time you start to hit the publish button, there is a brief moment of thought, did I say what I wanted? Is it any good?
Maybe I’ll look it over one more time. When I first started blogging, it took me forever to publish anything because there was always something I could look at and see imperfection.
It affects the way we prepare for the day, how we do our job, the way we approach parenthood, and even the way we approach our personal relationships. It has been drilled into us that the perfect parents raise the perfect kids, and life should be perfect all the time. If it isn’t, then there is obviously something wrong with us.
We spend many of our waking moments stalking perfection in all of our life roles and when it doesn’t happen, chastise ourselves unnecessarily. It seems a bit unhealthy to strive to look, act and live perfectly in everything you do. It seems like we are creating a lot of stress for nothing.
How often do we succeed at perfection?
I don’t know much, but I know that no matter how hard we try, we will never achieve perfection. That sounds harsh as I write it, but I challenge anyone to show me something that is total, 100% perfect in every way to everyone.
It will not happen because, by definition, human beings are not perfect. You may come close to perfection in your efforts, but there will always be something that wasn’t or isn’t quite right.
Does that mean you give up? Not to me, I think that in all things, we should strive for perfection. Why wouldn’t you? When you fall short of the impossible, be less hard on yourself. Many of the greatest and most memorable things we do in life will be to pursue something that can never be. When it is all said and done, even though you will find that perfection slips out of your grasp, the attempt’s journey will be a valuable teaching tool and a treasured memory.
We may never achieve perfection, but we can be perfect in our efforts, and if that is the case, then perhaps perfection is achievable after all.
What Would It Mean If We Were Perfect?
I think if perfection were achievable, then the world would cease to hold as many wonders. Excellence in some form or another would become commonplace, and the rare beauty of action, mind, and spirit that rises in all of us at some time would be taken for granted or just ignored altogether.
What is perfect anyway? Some cookie-cutter form or figure that the mainstream media has convinced you that you should emulate? Is there a perfect height? Perfect job? Perfect significant other? For each of us, the idea of perfection would be slightly different in some form or another. So since there are billions of people in the world, I would argue that the definition of perfection could never be agreed upon.
It would be a very boring world without the yoke of imperfection hanging over our heads. From the seemingly huge to the very minuscule, there is something fantastic about experiencing victory or success despite our well-known shortcomings in all accomplishments in my life.
The Beauty in our imperfections
The courage to be imperfect comes when we identify the beauty in our imperfections. They are the unique things about us that are a part of the package. So we will still spend the time looking good but realize that the illusion of perfection is not worth worrying about.
You are gloriously perfect just as you are, unfailingly and beautifully imperfect.
Each person that I have ever met has, in one way or another, basking in the glow of their individuality—the certain perks and character traits that made them uniquely them. I have also clung to these traits to separate myself from the crowd and show my unique value. Yet, I look at society today and see that I am participating in a world that is manipulating all of us into a prison of isolation. This is a restriction that keeps us from learning about ourselves and our own thoughts. Because we worry so much about fitting into the roles we are pressured to create from the programming and manipulation of our lives. It makes me wonder what I am missing in all of the people I meet. I think we are all connected. All we have to do is look for it and be willing to see it. Our similarities are far greater than our differences.
The Grand Manipulation
The education system has been ingeniously designed
This is how I was educated. Follow the rules, accept authority, consume
to build our sense of isolation over the years. We are told what to think, how to look, how to display affection, what is important, and even how to feel. When we don’t follow in lock-step with the expectations, we are failed, left behind, or ridiculed. We all learn to find acceptance in our society, and we follow the rules. We believe what we are told, without question. It is the building of isolation and separateness.
I think the truth is when we are born, we do not worry about following rules, and we live for the enjoyment of simply being alive. As long as our basic needs are provided for, we develop on a path of kindness. It is the programming of society that changes this. People are bombarded with expectations, advertising, and “education” to stand in line, sit up straight, and don’t make waves. Children should be seen and not heard. Tough to ask meaningful questions, or give thoughtful feedback if you are silent.
Adult Cells
So once we have been conditioned to accept
All alone together. The story of adulthood in 2019.
individuality as we grow, the cell door is slammed shut in adulthood, and we seemingly willingly throw away the key. Working a large portion of the week, exchanging our time for money, we spend our free time staring at electronic devices (television, computers, tablets, smartphones, etc.) Each of these devices draws our consciousness into a world of make-believe and keeps us from actually interacting with others.
The sad part is that we feel we have free will, but each moment we interact with technology, we are drawn away from who we are and more into a land of make-believe. Our minds are further brainwashed into looking for material possessions that will make us “happy.”
So we sit alone together watching the world happen on a television screen through a game or a story. It isn’t real, and we are decidedly alone. That isn’t how it should be.
We Are All Connected, Choose to See It
All living things are connected if we choose to see them.
Try a little personal connection and see what happens.
We are all a collective drop of water in the ocean of humanity. Each person contains within them the spark of wonder. Many people start to remember this as they get older. They don’t feel like things are quite “right.” That what they have been taught is filled with faulty feelings and lies. People collect all of the material possessions they will ever need, yet they still are unhappy. “Is this it?” often occurs to you, and you realize your experience can’t be all that there is. So you begin to search for the connections.
A great way to escape is to consciously look to widen your sphere of personal influence by having positive human interaction. Look for opportunities to connect with other people in meaningful ways. Enjoying things mutually in life, a common purpose or an experience of life that we can share, enjoy and remember together.
Look for a chance to connect through the day with those you come in contact with randomly, or even more importantly, with those you care about. How many meals do you eat as you are watching television, in isolation? Look for chances to expand your reality to include others so that your life will become richer. Leave the prison of modern life and accept the freedom that we all yearn for, even if we have forgotten it exists.
Hold hands, have a conversation about love or life, send a note of encouragement, compliment someone sincerely, be kind to a stranger, help someone in simple ways, share something, play a game, go for a walk with someone, start a project, discuss how to make the world a better place, provide hope. Or any of a million other things that we know are good and will bring connections between people.
“A human being is a part of a whole, called by us a universe, a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts, and feelings as something separated from the rest … a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty.” ~ Albert Einstein
When you look at your existence, what do you feel? Are you located in your body alone, simply taking up the space that you are physically in at the moment? Or are you more than that? Only you can answer this question. Do you make yourself small or big like the sky? This decision is made each day by all people living worldwide, in all sorts of circumstances. This is the choice we have. Let our greatness and abilities show for the world or hide behind excuses and fear, playing it safe and doing what we are told. In every moment, there is a choice of this, be your big, bold, beautiful self or hide that person away. Too many I know are playing the small game when the big game is right there for them to take. Of course, there is a risk, but life is a risk, or it is nothing. So are you going to live small today or big like the sky?
A Small Life
Many people would have you believe that you are small, insignificant, and not unique in any way. This type of thought is taught in many schools and societies. Be good, follow the rules and manage yourself. Stay within the confines of yourself and don’t branch out in thought or creativity. The purposes of these
Are you living like a pebble? As small as possible but “safe.”
limits are wide and varied. The individual teachers and parents might be just doing what they think is right, based on their education. Perhaps they are dealing with their own inadequacies. Seeing someone shining, growing, or moving toward great heights is scary. If one person can do it, so can they, and they are not, so what does that say about them.
When it was not ok to be myself, then I pulled myself inside for protection, like a turtle in its shell. Protect who you are from society’s ridicule and expectations that apparently don’t accept your gifts and talents. It is better to bury that gift than have it be destroyed. this leads to us living life in a small way. Hidden behind several masks of false identity that protect us. Besides not truly being yourself, the problem is that after a while, we accept that this is the way life is and forget the talents and uniqueness that we have inside. We live life in a small way, moving through our days with a quiet gnawing feeling that something isn’t right, but we don’t know what.
Living Like the Sky
Some never experience this. Or life allows them to escape this cycle of smallness. They can nurture
Are you living as big as the sky?
This inner talent, and instead of pulling it in, they are projecting it out. Out to the world, where others can see it, feel it, and know it. These individuals’ influence will grow out to distances that are unfathomable to others, especially those living life like a pebble. They see the sky, and it is so foreign to them that they ridicule it, chastise it, and move as far away from it as possible.
Yet it shines because that is what the sky does. There is nothing but the possibility of more and the unique configuration of clouds in its broad expanse and either that will never be constructed in the same way ever again. This form can only be described as beautiful.
Your Choice Now, Be You
Really, in the end, being you is the greatest accomplishment of life.
So now it is your choice how to live your life. Live small like a pebble or big like the sky. Hide in protective mode or let yourself expand out into whatever form you will take. In the end, you are only yourself, and being anything other than that is a lie. I don’t know you, but I do know a few things about you. You are unique. You have talent. You can be kind. You can give to others. You are fantastic.
So what is your choice live small like a pebble or live big like the sky?
Being a true original is difficult to do today. The media inundates all people with numerous messages of what we should aspire to be, what clothes are acceptable to fit our persona, what beverage to drink, and even which medications we should take to alleviate any minor problem. You have to wonder if there is room for a person to be a total original. Then you meet or see one, and you know it exists, which means the authentic self exists in you. Blaze your path and leave a trail for others to follow. Too many people worry about what others think of what they do. Just do what your heart tells you. If you are experiencing fulfillment in the process, then that is all that matters. Let’s strive to make each of us the person we were born to be.
Show Your Unique Abilities
We live in a world that is full of contradictions. People have the drive to be unique but live in a hell-bent society to make sure we are never expressing this. So what can you do to show your unique abilities? One of the first things is to try not to imitate others consciously. Do your own thing. I struggle with this constantly because I see many great writing ideas and some I try to emulate, to see how they fit, but that only lasts for a little while. I have to be me and express my thoughts how I see them and, more importantly, feel them. Each thing I write comes from the creation of my mind. Others’ ideas influence me in the many things I read, listen to, and grow from. I try to express my thoughts on all of these things in my words. Words seem to be an outdated form of communication sometimes, but they are the method I have.
Your uniqueness will shine through the minute you start to think for yourself and do what your heart tells you. If you want to create art, then create the art your soul is craving to express. Some people I know with great talent are much too wrapped up in seeking an audience and creating things to do that rather than create what you have the capacity and will to do and let the audience create itself. I would rather die an original than live my life as a copy.
Don’t Waste Your Effort.
So many of us spend so much of our energy to make sure that we present a story of who we are to the world that we want them to see that we have no clue who we really are. It takes a lot of energy to do this, to wear the mask of perfection or whatever you want the world to see. When so much of yourself is spent keeping people from seeing who you are, obviously, you will not be your authentic self, and the only trail you will leave is one of anger, frustration, and personal disappointment.
Throw this out and focus on being you, regardless of what you think the world wants you to be. You may not even remember who you actually are because you have been playing a part so long. Move off the path that others desire for you and move forward down the path of your true self. Your authentic self already knows the answers, it was a person you were born to be, and you were this person before society, and time reprogrammed you to think who you were was wrong. Now we spend our remaining years seeking to find our purpose, and it is always to get back to that authentic individual. Some will make it, and some will never look. That is the choice of life. Choose to be your authentic self, and the world needs more of this.
Leave a Trail
Too many times, people do what others think they should. Rather than blazing their own trail, even in a small way, they spend their time looking over their shoulder for the approval of others. We see this in the presentation of social media posts. People seem to be looking for ways to present themselves as they want to be seen rather than as they truly are. Hiding their authentic self behind a facade of self-propagated propaganda.
Please don’t follow the crowd, and they don’t know what is good for you as a person. Only you can know what choices will feel good to you. Only you can determine your path because when it is all done, you will be held responsible for your life and who you are, not the crowd. Be your best self and leave a bright, brave trail for others to follow. You are the only one who can do this, don’t let yourself down.
Do Not Go Where the Path May Lead, Go Instead Where There Is No Path and Leave a Trail – Ralph Waldo Emerson
“Through it all, I stood tall and did it my way.” – Frank Sinatra.
“Everyone who has the will can hear their inner voice. It is within everyone.” Gandhi
Today I am particularly grateful for my inner voice and the fact that I am learning to listen to it. I have thousands of thoughts every day, and most are negative and repeats of things I have thought before. The challenge of this writing is to find the ability to quiet the mind and listen to the voice within, the heart message that will NEVER lead you wrong. Take a trip down this road.
Turn Down the Noise
Each of our minds is a nonstop factory of thought. New thoughts are being created in all of our waking hours, old thoughts being revisited, and other people’s thoughts being entertained. We can’t help but think, and it is the job of the mind.
But if you listen to what the thoughts tell you, many of them are petty, jealous, and judgmental of others but more importantly of ourselves. We spend a lot of time making ourselves feel bad about our decisions in the past, where we are in life, and what we like to do. If you entertain that voice and its thoughts, you will lack self-confidence and not think much of your abilities. It is below all that noise that you have to look for the real voice you listen to.
Calm and Let Them Go
When I have a lot of work to do or need an answer that will be something that I can trust, I have to get by those thoughts and listen to the voice in my heart. But how can you get by the nonstop whir of your never-ending mind? That is the challenge to most great things.
Finding this voice is simple, but it isn’t easy. You have to learn to let the incessant thoughts your mind is producing slide by you, notice them but then just let them go. As you do this, you will find an increasing sense of quiet in your mind. As the mind quiets, only then can the voice in your heart be heard. Focusing your mind on your breathing and choosing not to get involved in your thoughts is the thing that will free you. It is in the stillness of the mind when your heart can be heard or rather felt.
I Don’t Know Who You Are
There is no advice I can give you about where this voice comes from, except to say that it comes from inside of me, and it has never been wrong. My mind is often critical and judgmental. This voice has an understanding and always pushes for my greatest good. When I see disaster on the outside, the voice gives me a less egoic perception of the situation, and I know it isn’t the end of the world. In fact, even a bad situation can lead to extraordinary growth and learning. Heights can be reached, which otherwise would have been unavailable to you without a tough experience. Suffering is not a good thing, but it can bring good things. LISTEN.
No, you aren’t perfect, but this is how things will play out, and here is what you should do. Always this voice chooses the path that is best for me, yet I still fight against it. I think I know more and am more intelligent, but clearly, I am not.
Almost all of my failures and shortcomings in life have come when I let my conscious thoughts guide me over my intuition. Do this because it is safe! Do that because it is expected! Do those things you know because they are safe! What will people think? Yet, it is the things that I haven’t done that will take me where I want and need to go. To find the purpose of my life.
Today, I am grateful for this voice inside me, and I hope that I have the will to listen to the voice and the courage to do what I hear from that voice in my heart. Sometimes having the faith to do what you have never done is the secret to everything.
“If you cannot do great things, do small things in a great way.”~ Success
Are great deeds hiding from you? Is it difficult to find them? This can be the case from time to time, but all deeds provide the chance to be performed with greatness. Each moment of every activity you are taking part in provides the opportunity to display the greatness inside you and find success.
You can always perform in a great way by completing whatever you are doing with the greatness that is inside of you. Some call a poor effort “good enough,” but not you. Your talent, conscience, and effort won’t let that stand as an example of your work. Only greatness can come from you because let’s face it, you are great. Do you see that in yourself, or is there something else you are looking at?
Creating Success
It doesn’t matter if you are bringing an orchestra together to play a great piece of music. Or perhaps it is a team of athletes working to become the best they can. If each person participating creates greatness in their little part, then the music or the team has a chance to achieve unique perfection. Even with the smallest role, if one person decides to be less than great, then the whole project is in jeopardy of mediocrity or worse.
The little things make the big things possible, and each of us has a part to play in this. All that we can control is our own thoughts, words, and actions in any situation. Another person’s choices belong to him or her, and that is why it is important to understand who we are aligning ourselves within, attempting to achieve our hopes and dreams. If you are spending time on a project with a person who is less than committed to greatness, then how can you find success? Use wisdom when choosing your companions on the path of life.
More On Little Things
With each small task you perform each day, and you are choosing to be great or not. This generally is going to come from being present in the moment of the task you are performing. That means not having your mind on something else, which is a cheat to you and those you are with and the task you perform.
Being totally present at the moment will allow you to perform at your best every day. Notice all the little moments and things that make up your life. Allow for the opportunity to practice this. If you are great in all things, then there will be no choice for the bigger things in life. Being great consistently is a skill that you can develop. Don’t let anyone tell you any different.
It Can Only Be Greatness
Greatness is defined in you every day of your life. The way you think, hear, talk, walk, or spend your time is unique to you and in that rarity is your greatness. It is all of these small things that make us who we are, unique and AMAZING. Each goal we have, large or small, will be accomplished one small step at a time. Take and make those steps as perfectly as you can with your maximum effort, and the result can only be greatness.
For many people, including myself, there are times when we are not sure what to do next. A new situation confronts us, and we have to move left or tack right. Something is headed right for us! What do we do?
Now for me, either because of the way I was brought up or because I am just a very stubborn person asking anyone for help or advice is almost always out of the question because it would reveal to the world, gasp, “I don’t know everything.”
Okay, I am sure that the world doesn’t care if I know everything or not, so why would it bother me to ask for help?
Recently I have contemplated this mystery because someone recently asked me if they could help me. My initial reaction was pretty typical. I think, “No, thank you, I am fine.”
Then I stopped to think about it. I am not perfect, and I don’t have all the answers. Perhaps there is some assistance that I could get from someone else’s insights, experiences, or knowledge. I then remembered two things. There are people who I knew were in deep.
Look to give a helping hand.
trouble and I offered to help them, and they said: “No thanks, I am fine.”
The second thing I remembered was when I was at the lowest point of my life. I was struggling to make it through each day, and if anyone needed help or encouragement, it was me, and continually I would pretend that everything was fine, I was OK. In reality, I was really in distress and just too proud or stubborn to let anyone know about it or help me navigate through this difficult time.
In retrospect, this was very foolish behavior. I could have had the smartest person in the world at my disposal, and it wouldn’t have mattered because I was intent on keeping my problems to myself—no point in burdening anyone else with my problems. The result is needless suffering.
Help is not a dirty word. It doesn’t mean you are weak if you lean on someone else for advice, assistance, or support.
In fact, it shows two things. First that you are intelligent and
It would be nice if this guy showed up when you had questions, but life usually chooses more accessible messengers. Listen to them!
Recognize that you need some information that you don’t have to move forward most efficiently. Secondly, it gives others a chance to help you.
Most people have great intentions and want to make your life a bit easier by sharing their wisdom.
This doesn’t mean that you have to listen to every person you meet in a coffee shop; rather, I think it means that if you need help, don’t be too proud to ask or too stubborn to accept it when it comes to you.
That is how the world works best, with all of us working together.
Trust~firm belief in the reliability, truth, ability, or strength of someone or something.
It is impossible to talk about the value of trust without discussing all of the reasons we don’t trust or, worse yet, trust when we shouldn’t. It is one of the greatest learning curves in life, putting your trust in the right people and things. Today’s goal is to look at the things we trust and bring them into your consciousness and analyze if they are worthy of trust or not. The things we trust build our beliefs about the world and the people we encounter in it. If your trust is misplaced, so is your belief, and your experiences will most likely reflect this. Once someone violates your trust, it is good to understand what it tells you about them. They certainly don’t have your best interest at heart.
Childhood Trust
There are education and indoctrination into becoming the human being you are today. The beliefs you have today were built on the foundation of trust people innately have for their family members. A person is born, and they spend the first portion of their life trying to figure out how the world works. What is safe? What can we trust? The parenting we receive and the culture we are born into providing many of these early answers. The definition of success, goodness, desire, positivity, how to treat others, our values are all determined as we figure out life. Add to that the messages we receive from media and authority figures of school or other organizations. It all determines what we trust.
As life unfolds and you have new experiences, many of the things you once trusted as truth are proven to be no more than an opinion you choose to accept as true. When you start to see these truths fail, it cannot be easy to trust anyone or anything. Life provides a good classroom and having thoughts, opinions, and even beliefs that change and develop as new information and experience become available is a healthy thing. The attachments of trust we build to beliefs make them Earth-shattering when they are proven not true. This can be a philosophy or a significant other. When these heartfelt truths are broken, so are you. At least for a while.
Trust Yourself
Life is much easier and enjoyable when you trust yourself. Of course, this is a much more difficult proposition than it sounds. We all make mistakes, miscalculations, and misjudgments in the experience of our lives. How can we trust such a person? The choice is up to you, to crawl under a rock and hide from the past mistakes and cowering in fear because of the mistakes you will make in the future. Or you can see the mistakes for what they truly are, learning experiences. Some paths of knowledge are much more painful than others.
Trust yourself to learn the lessons is a big step in figuring out exactly who you are and what your purpose might be in life. Trust that you can handle whatever comes your way, no matter how uncomfortable, intimidating, or insurmountable it may seem. Look at your life so far. How many challenges have you successfully (or unsuccessfully) navigated so far? Each of us is on our own hero’s journey, and the only way we can fail is to quit. Trust in the hero in you. Don’t let the villains who enter your life win.
Trust Your Experience
Daily we are inundated with messages. From society, social media, the mainstream media, advertisers, and government. People seem to forget messages always have a purpose. In our society, we are given messages to buy things, spend money, gain possessions as if that will fill us up. We all know, I think, that deep down, buying things will not fill our empty spaces. They are meant for real emotional experiences. There is a momentary enthusiasm that may accompany a purchase, but it leaves soon, and you are faced with the same space. Don’t trust the messages you receive from the outside. Analyze them and determine the motive.
Much of the “news” of the day is presented in a way to increase your level of fear. A frightened person is easy to control. If you are afraid of your neighbors, you will not unite with them and do something revolutionary like think for yourself. Trust in the experiences you have with people and situations. You know what good feels like and seek that out in your daily life. Trust it.
Recognize Trust
When it comes to relationships, trust is built over time and through consistent interactions with someone. We all meet people who we trust, and they are proven they don’t merit that consideration. Just as with any experience, we should use these experiences to learn from. Not as an excuse to never trust again. The gold treasure of life is to find people and things you can rely on. Those are worth more than any monetary reward. It is also their scarcity that makes them so valuable. Trust again, but not anyone who has broken your trust. They do not deserve it.
It is simple to see if a person is worth your trust. Be conscious of their thoughts, words, and actions. Do they do what they say? Emergencies happen, but for the most part, if you say you are going to do something, follow through and do it. Trust is built. In the same vein, are the things they tell you true? Really there is no good reason to lie or be dishonest. Honesty is how trust is built, and it can all be torn down with one lie. A lie is proof of a lack of character and possible narcissism.
Trust
Evaluate your thoughts, words, and actions honestly today and decide whether they are worthy of your trust. Are all of your beliefs valid, supported by observations and experience, or are they something you blindly accept? Trust yourself to know the difference and to keep positive in your life and the negative out. The answers are not the same for everyone.
Trust is an important ingredient in an enjoyable life. You have to give it to get it. It will restore your faith as quickly as it took faith away.
“The best way to find out if you can trust somebody is to trust them.” ― Ernest Hemingway
experience of life. The path to truth for each of us is more than likely going to be unique to our lives and will not look the same for any two of us. Following your path to truth is going to be a one-of-a-kind journey. So follow it with passion and allow others to do the same. Life is too short to spend valuable time being anything less than authentic and practice truth in all areas of your life. Only you can decide what that means for you.
and direction about the right thing to do. In the end, the only person who has experienced this trip has been me, and in retrospect, I alone can gauge each lesson learned and benefit from the wisdom these events have provided.
tools they need are unique to them. Even though you will all end up at the same destination, there is no “wrong” path to follow as long as you are not hurting someone else or limiting their lives. To support and encourage all people on their way. Some may get waylaid and stopped short of the ultimate destination, but that is their adventure, not yours. When asked, offer an honest assessment. When not asked, mind your own business and tend to your path. Be a shining example of how to live your life honestly and with a purpose.
