Maybe you can relate…
For years I knew I wanted to do more, be more, to contribute, leave a mark, to move people and be of value and service. I wanted to be someone who lives with passion and purpose. Someone who knows exactly who they are and is utterly comfortable and confident within it.
I expended much energy wondering how I could do this, what it would take, who or what I needed to become. I wondered, “What kind of person do I need to become?”
Do you sometimes ask yourself these questions?
I looked to those I admired. I wanted to be like them — more real, more engaging, so easy to connect with — knowing that they understood, that they’ve been there too (sometimes still were), yet have so much to offer, so many valuable lessons to teach.
At their basis they were just like everyone else, but somehow totally different -– so open, so wise, so authentic, so comfortable, so human, so… inspiring.
I wondered, “What work do I need to do, what do I need to learn, in what ways do I need to grow so I can become like that?”
I’m just a normal human being, with flaws and imperfections, like a temper that flares when it shouldn’t, days where I just want to stay in bed, days where I completely doubt myself, bad hair days, BO days, warm days on which I’m stuck wearing pants because I forgot to shave my legs, days where it’s scrambled eggs for dinner because I couldn’t be bothered cooking or I failed to plan ahead.
The chasm between who I wanted to be and who I was seemed unfathomably huge.
I pondered and wondered. I racked my brain. I studied, I read, I delved deeper and deeper into my own soul.
And one day I understood.
The thing I feared was the very thing I needed to embrace. Acceptance of my own authentic self was the bridge I’d been looking for.
It’s the thing you will need to embrace also if you wish to grow, to serve, to live the life you were intended for, to do the work you were put on this earth to do.
Your humanity, your imperfections, your flaws, your frailty – embrace all of it.
I realised I needed to embrace the contradictions within me: my fragility alongside my strength, my insecurity alongside my determination and self-belief, my failings alongside my successes, my ignorance alongside my knowledge.
This was exactly what I’d been admiring in my mentors. The evidence of their humanity, the constant battle and determination to grow, the ways in which they humbly accepted their imperfections and then leveraged them to become their strengths, the constant see-saw, the yin and the yang living in harmony with one another.
We often get so busy trying to be who we THINK we should be, who we feel we OUGHT to be, or who we desperately WANT to be that we lose sight of who we REALLY are.
When we lose our authenticity, we disconnect – both from who we really are and from others.
We become a fraudulent version of ourselves. We sell our soul. The shell becomes increasingly fragile as the substance within slowly drains away.
So embrace your humanity, celebrate your imperfections, and remain authentically you. Then you will always stay connected to that endless reservoir of strength, love, and inspiration that lives inside of you. You will be the hero and mentor of your own life, trusting your intuition and guidance, based on honesty and authenticity.
Stay true to the perfect circle of life and neverending growth –- it always starts with your authentic self and ends with you in your most amazing, prosperous and abundant glory.
You are my hero.
