Start with yourself. If you start anywhere else, it’s a false start and you’ll just be forced to go back to the starting line and begin again. And again. (Sort of like Usain Bolt false-starting & being DQ’d at the World Track & Field Championships yesterday.)
Starting with yourself means finding the place within you that is not influenced by outside forces. It’s not affected by what other people say or do. It’s not discouraged by people wanting to stop you. It’s not even concerned with the negative things you say about yourself, which come from the conditioned part of our left brain.
When I was in my 20’s I spent a great amount of time running away from who I was; always trying to be someone else: wanting to be liked, or popular, or cool, or attractive.
But no matter how hard I tried to avoid myself, I kept coming back to me. By my 30’s I realized that who I was – who we all are – is the thing we keep looking for somewhere else.
In someone else.
Our essential Self (which makes each of us unique) is the part of us that is connected to something bigger than our egos. It’s like you are one of those limitless channels, plugged into the TV.
To receive the broadcast, you’ve got to keep your channel open. You’ve got to get out of your own way. You’ve got to get out of its way. Keep it open. Stay plugged in.
It’s not an easy job because the ego wants to get in there and take credit, or lay blame, or excuse, or rationalize, or defend, or judge.
To live optimally – the way we are intended to create and live – requires us to surrender to something bigger than us – but of which we’re all a part – that wishes to be expressed through us.
And because each of us is uniquely different, the expression of it will be unique, innovative, original, dynamic.
You don’t have to work so hard trying to do. You don’t have to put something on. You don’t have to show. Stop trying so hard.
You simply have to allow. Surrender. Align. Accept.
Watch what happens. Just. Stay. Open.
You are the vehicle. Let yourself be driven.
“Choose to be optimistic. It feels better.” — The Dali Lama