Categories
Emotions

Worry: The Surprising Path To Happiness

Worry: The Surprising Path To Happiness
“Don’t worry, be happy.” ~ XXX
We have been culturally conditioned to consider worry as the antithesis of happiness and a thing of pure evil.
This understanding of worry perpetuates a misunderstanding of negative emotions and the role they play in our lives.
While worry might not be a pleasant emotion to experience, it plays a vital role in driving us towards appropriate action and – ultimately – happiness.
Human Nature Is Beautiful
It’s wrong to believe that positive emotions are good and negative emotions are bad. All emotions are good. Or, at least, they have the potential to be good, depending on what action they lead us to take.
Deriving joy from other people’s misfortunes might feel good, but it isn’t a healthy response to human suffering, and will ultimately lead us to destructive conduct.
Worry is an emotional response to circumstances. Or, to be more accurate, it’s a response to thoughts about circumstances.
You face relationship problems, and so you worry.
You don’t know how to make financial ends meet, and so you worry.
You have health problems, and so you worry.
Your mind doesn’t want you to suffer. It generates the emotion of worry so that you can take action to fix a potentially harmful situation.
Without worry, you might ignore your problems rather than find solutions for them. Evasion can be deadly, and so your mind steps in to ensure that you have the emotional reminder that something needs to be done about the problems you’re facing.
Worry isn’t harmful. It’s a beautiful, healthy response.
Provided it’s for the right reasons and to the right degree.
Healthy Worry
While our emotions can play an invaluable role in our survival, we often develop unhealthy emotional associations that jeopardize our well-being.
Remember, your emotions are the result of your thoughts about reality. If you have the mental habit of focusing solely on problems and concluding that you’re in a crisis, when you’re not, you may experience worry even when there’s no real cause to worry.
Why is public speaking such a frightening experience?
We speak to people on a daily basis, but speaking to a group of people while standing on a stage and commanding their attention makes us worry about screwing up, being laughed at or mocked for our presentation skills.
The calculations that we make in assessing a public speaking experience are inaccurate. They amplify the threats in a way that generates high (and unhealthy) amounts of fear and worry, leading to poor performances or missed opportunities.
Healthy worry is when we feel inclined to learn more and do more so that we can achieve our goals and avoid falling into unfavorable situations that we are able to avoid.
Unhealthy worry is that which paralyzes us from taking action and is often the outcome of a wild imagination that makes the world seem hellbent on making us suffer.
To condemn yourself for experiencing any sort of worry isn’t a healthy attitude to negative emotions, since they’re on your side and can assist you in moving your life forward.
How Worry Leads To Happiness
In order to harness the power of worry to experience happiness, here are 3 steps for you to take:
1- Listen to your emotions: What are you feeling? And why are you feeling it? Your emotions are trying to tell you something, and you must figure out what the message is so you can take appropriate action. If you’re worried, what could your body be telling you? What problem must you face?
2- Develop an action-bias: Rather than simply think about your problems, shift your focus on what you can do about them. What actions can you take to fix the problems you’re facing? Who can you ask to help? What do you need to learn more about? Push yourself to take action to fix your problems, rather than allow your worries to engulf you. After all, that’s what your mind and body want you to do.
3- Accept what you can’t change: If you absolutely can’t do anything about a situation, then there’s no need to worry. To worry about things you cannot change means that you’re living by a mental model that doesn’t match the reality you’re living, which is generating emotions that aren’t supporting you in taking appropriate action.
Happiness comes from embracing who we are as human beings (without condemning ourselves for experiencing negative emotions), to act appropriately in the face of the challenges we face in life and to accept reality for what it is.
And worry is one of many emotions in our human arsenal that can help us towards achieving happiness.

“Don’t worry, be happy.” ~ Bobby McFerrin

We have been culturally conditioned to consider worry as the antithesis of happiness and a thing of pure evil.

This understanding of worry perpetuates a misunderstanding of negative emotions and the role they play in our lives.

While worry might not be a pleasant emotion to experience, it plays a vital role in driving us towards appropriate action and – ultimately – happiness.

Human Nature Is Beautiful

It’s wrong to believe that positive emotions are good and negative emotions are bad.

All emotions are good.

Or, at least, they have the potential to be good, depending on what action they lead us to take.

Deriving joy from other people’s misfortunes might feel good, but it isn’t a healthy response to human suffering, and will ultimately lead us to destructive conduct.

Worry is an emotional response to circumstances. Or, to be more accurate, it’s a response to thoughts about circumstances.

You face relationship problems, and so you worry.

You don’t know how to make financial ends meet, and so you worry.

You have health problems, and so you worry.

Your mind doesn’t want you to suffer. It generates the emotion of worry so that you can take action to fix a potentially harmful situation.

Without worry, you might ignore your problems rather than find solutions for them. Evasion can be deadly, and so your mind steps in to ensure that you have the emotional reminder that something needs to be done about the problems you’re facing.

Worry isn’t harmful. It’s a beautiful, healthy response.

Provided it’s for the right reasons and to the right degree.

Healthy Worry

While our emotions can play an invaluable role in our survival, we often develop unhealthy emotional associations that jeopardize our well-being.

Remember, your emotions are the result of your thoughts about reality. If you have the mental habit of focusing solely on problems and concluding that you’re in a crisis, when you’re not, you may experience worry even when there’s no real cause to worry.

Why is public speaking such a frightening experience?

We speak to people on a daily basis, but speaking to a group of people while standing on a stage and commanding their attention makes us worry about screwing up, being laughed at or mocked for our presentation skills.

The calculations that we make in assessing a public speaking experience are inaccurate. They amplify the threats in a way that generates high (and unhealthy) amounts of fear and worry, leading to poor performances or missed opportunities.

Healthy worry is when we feel inclined to learn more and do more so that we can achieve our goals and avoid falling into unfavorable situations that we are able to avoid.

Unhealthy worry is that which paralyzes us from taking action and is often the outcome of a wild imagination that makes the world seem hellbent on making us suffer.

To condemn yourself for experiencing any sort of worry isn’t a healthy attitude to negative emotions, since they’re on your side and can assist you in moving your life forward.

How Worry Leads To Happiness

In order to harness the power of worry to experience happiness, here are 3 steps for you to take:

1- Listen to your emotions: What are you feeling? And why are you feeling it? Your emotions are trying to tell you something, and you must figure out what the message is so you can take appropriate action. If you’re worried, what could your body be telling you? What problem must you face?

2- Develop an action-bias: Rather than simply think about your problems, shift your focus on what you can do about them. What actions can you take to fix the problems you’re facing? Who can you ask to help? What do you need to learn more about? Push yourself to take action to fix your problems, rather than allow your worries to engulf you. After all, that’s what your mind and body want you to do.

3- Accept what you can’t change: If you absolutely can’t do anything about a situation, then there’s no need to worry. Worrying about things you cannot change means that you’re living by a mental model that doesn’t match the reality you’re living, which is generating emotions that aren’t supporting you in taking appropriate action.

Happiness comes from embracing who we are as human beings (without condemning ourselves for experiencing negative emotions), to act appropriately in the face of the challenges we face in life and to accept reality for what it is.

And worry is one of the many emotions in our human arsenal that can help us take appropriate action and achieve happiness.

Categories
Balance Personal Growth Map

Lead A Balanced Life Today – Free Ebook

Lead A Balanced Life Today - Ebook Cover

I’m very proud and excited to be sharing with you my latest creation (and first ebook!).

OK, it’s not a lengthy piece, but brevity is an advantage in my humble opinion. 😉

So What’s This Ebook About?

It’s about creating life balance in your life today, and not when you retire or become a millionaire.

The ebook looks at some common misconceptions about life balance and why it matters to your success.

It also gives the most comprehensive explanation of the Personal Growth Map to date, and how you can start using it to gain control over your life and accelerate your personal growth.

Why Should I Care?

Since you’re on a personal growth site I suspect you’re interested in personal growth (I’ve been told that I’m a genius, and this level of reasoning seems to prove it :P).

But personal growth isn’t always easy. In fact, it’s usually overwhelming. There’s just too much to read and do that you can feel scattered by all the topics you read about.

The Personal Growth Map helps to add structure to your life and identify the needs you must fulfill as a human being.

Trying to achieve success in one area of your life while neglecting all other areas will not only compromise your well-being but your chances of achieving success in that life area you’re focusing on.

This easy-to-read ebook explains why that’s the case and how you can begin to infuse your life with greater balance so you can make progress in every area of your life.

Where’s The Download Link, Dammit?!

There’s no download link, but there is a subscription form at the bottom of this post to subscribe to my “New Life” e-newsletter. Once you confirm your subscription you’ll automatically receive a link to download the ebook.

(If you’re reading this in an email or RSS reader you might need to click here to see the subscription form)

But I Already Receive Too Many Emails!

While I would love to offer the ebook on the site, I believe it serves as a great introduction to life balance, but there’s a lot more we need to cover to make life balance a reality in your life.

That’s why an email newsletter is a more suitable medium to offer you further information about how you can create balance in your life, and it also gives you a chance to email me any feedback, questions and suggestions.

I won’t be abusing your Inbox with lots of emails (usually one email a week), and you can always unsubscribe if you no longer wish to hear from me.

OK, I’m In! <– This is what you’re meant to be saying by now

That’s great!

Simply add your name and email address to the form below and make sure you click on the link in the confirmation email you receive.

(Can’t see a subscription form? Click here to go to the post and subscribe)

If you have any questions, please feel free to leave me a comment below, send me an email or get in touch via Twitter.

Categories
Intellectual Learning

7 Steps To Turn Your Reading Into Results

readingWe spend a great deal of our time reading. And the more committed we are to personal growth, the more we want to learn and, therefore, the more we are likely to want to read.

Sadly, the growth in our reading pile doesn’t necessarily reflect the personal growth we experience. It seems that a lot of time and effort is spent reading, without experiencing any lasting results. And we assume that we’re simply not reading enough.

But the truth is, the problem isn’t lack of reading, but lack of effective reading.

These 7 steps will help you gain more out of what you read.

Step 1 – Shift Your Focus

Imagine all your reading material to your left. All the physical books, journals, and magazines you want to read; your Kindle device loaded with your Amazon purchases, your laptop with the rest of your digital library, and the Library of Congress, if you happen to be that ambitious.

And imagine your life to your right. Your kids playing in the yard, you working at your desk, your spouse reading a novel, etc.

What many of us do is face the reading pile on the left, and see life as a distraction from our reading. Your children want your attention, your spouse wants your love, your business wants your commitment, etc.

“How the hell am I supposed to get all my reading done when this stupid life thing is getting in the way!?”

Reading feels like an obligation, and a pretty heavy one at that. There’s too much to read, and not enough time to read it.

And the more we discover we need to read, the less reading we get done.

The first step you need to take is to shift your focus from reading to living.

Turn to your life on your right and ask yourself: What do I need to read about to improve my life?

You don’t live to read more. You read to live better.

Focus on the results you want and the life you want to live, not the books you have to read.

Step 2 – Pick What’s Relevant

Not everything you want to read is applicable to your life. At least, not right now.

You don’t want to read a step-by-step guide on writing a business plan if you’re not thinking of starting your own business this year. You might want to pick out a book on the feasibility and advantages of starting a business, because that’s more relevant to where you are.

By reading what’s relevant, you’ll have better retention, and can apply what you read in your life to get the results you’re after!

Not rocket science, I know.

But how many of us take relevance into consideration? We’ve been brainwashed to think that knowledge is power, and so we seek to acquire it without being selective about what knowledge to acquire. In fact, we often let others decide what we should be reading (usually what they’re selling), and don’t stop to consider if it’s the best thing for us to read or not, given our own lives, and not their bank accounts or traffic ratings.

Look to your life on the right and ask yourself: What areas of my life are in desperate need of my attention? What problems need urgent solutions? What can I read to help me address them?

Now look through your reading pile and see what you can pick out from there. If nothing matches your needs from your reading pile, look elsewhere. Just because you already have those books doesn’t mean they’re more important than what’s relevant.

Relevance trumps convenience.

I would encourage you to consider 3 factors when picking out what’s relevant:

  1. The elephant in the room: If you’re facing a serious problem in your life, it will need your attention more than any other topic. Don’t ignore it and hope the elephant will graciously leave the room. It might cause a lot of damage on its way out.
  2. Your comprehension level: If you’re clueless about a subject, it might be more helpful to read a Dummies guide than an expert’s manual. You don’t want to feel lost while reading. Otherwise, you could lose your motivation to continue reading, or your confidence in getting the results you want. Read the stuff that makes you feel confident, not confused.
  3. Life balance: Focusing on improving a single life area won’t serve you well in life… or in that life area. Every area of your life impacts every other area, which is why I encourage people to take all life areas into consideration. I identify our life areas as: Spiritual, Intellectual, Psychological, Social, Professional, Recreational, and Physical. You want to make progress in each and every life area.

After picking out the most relevant reading material for yourself, you can ignore the rest (for now).

Step 3 – Find Alternatives To Reading

Now that you know what’s relevant to your life, consider ways of acquiring the same information, but without having to do any reading (your focus should be on the results you want, remember?).

What if you can listen to a book, rather than read it? That way, you get to go through the same content, but at times where you won’t be able to read (while driving, for example).

How about meeting up with an expert on the subject, or having a Skype conversation with a friend?

You could get someone else to summarize the book for you, or find videos that deal with the topic you want to learn more about.

Whatever the alternative might be, since you’re after the results, you can find one that’s more appropriate for you than reading, and offers advantages over reading.

Step 4 – Take Notes While You Read

This step is at the heart of the reading process. Taking effective notes will help you make the most out of what you read. Some people highlight sentences, or leave one-word notes in the margins. But how are they going to use them? And – more importantly – what for?

I need your undivided attention here.

This is an extremely important practice for you to get acquainted with, and it tackles the reason why we don’t get much out of what we read.

The first principle to effective note-taking is: Separate the theory from the action steps.

Not all information is created equally, or can be used in the same way. You need to divide information in a way that reflects how you’ll be using it.

Some of what you read influences your understanding, and some asks you to take action. Lumping the two together under the same list of notes means that you’ll read what you should be doing, when you should be doing what you’re reading. You shouldn’t read an exercise. You should do it. Maybe not while you’re reading through the book, but certainly afterwards.

Summarize the key ideas of what you read, and keep a separate list of the things you will do after reading.

And in case you’re wondering: nodding in agreement isn’t an action, which might help explain why we don’t usually get the results we want. 😉

Step 5 – Write Down Your Own Thoughts

One of the most common misconceptions about reading is that it’s a passive process, where you simply take in the information presented to you.

You might get ideas that are unrelated to what you’re reading.

You could strongly disagree with what you read, and end up making notes that suggest a completely different approach to the one being recommended by the author.

You might also find yourself building on what you read, or filling the gaps that haven’t been covered.

Your mind is active while reading. Don’t overlook its wisdom simply because you want the information being presented to you. You’ll be surprised by how much you already know, and what great insights you can come up with!

Step 6 – Put Your Reading into Practice

Now that you have a to-do list, you know what to do after reading. If you don’t go through the to do list, and get the tasks done, then it’s very unlikely that you’ll experience any results from your reading. In other words, what you have read hasn’t contributed to your life, or helped you improve it.

It’s essential that you are keen on getting results, and not simply going through the mechanics of reading, without generating an output. But reading is only part of the process. Doing is the next phase we need to go through to achieve our goals, and experience personal growth.

This may sting a bit, but it’s important for you to acknowledge: Many of us use reading as an excuse to avoid doing. It’s a distraction we can convince ourselves is essential and productive, but remains a distraction, nevertheless. If you have to confront your partner about an issue, then confront your partner. Don’t read more and more books about how to improve your relationship, so that you can put off the confrontation.

If you want results in your life, you will have to put the books down at one point, and do what they ask you to do, or what you know you should do.

Step 7 – Evaluate What You Read… and How You Read

To improve your approach to reading and, therefore, the results you can get out of reading, it’s important to evaluate the quality of what you read, and how your approach can be improved.

Did a writer get you feeling motivated while reading, but failed in helping you sustain that feeling in your life?

Why did that happen? Did you not follow his advice properly, or was it impractical?

Is there a writer with a style that resonates with you, and can get you to apply his advice with ease?

Be aware of what you find useful in what you read, and what you find ineffective.

You may realize that you’re taking too many notes, or not enough notes, or don’t understand the notes you take when you look back at them.

Use these observations to guide what you read, and how you read.

With these 7 steps, you can increase the chances of getting more out of what you read, without feeling guilty for not having read everything you can get your hands on.

If there are more steps or guidelines you can share that have helped you get more results out of what you read, then I’d love to hear from you!

Please share your thoughts in the comments section. 🙂

Photo credit: striatic

Categories
Self

Symptoms & Causes

“There are a thousand hacking at the branches of evil to one who is striking at the root.”
~ Henry David Thoreau

In a recent study* of how people approach personal growth, it was found that 90% of effort was spent tackling symptoms, rather than deal with the problems that cause them.

Excuses aren’t the root cause of abandoned goals, because excuses themselves are a symptom of a deeper problem.

Fear of failure isn’t a root cause, either, even though fear is a favored culprit in personal growth literature.

So what is the root cause of excuses and fears?

What Are You Defending?

There’s something wonderful you need to acknowledge and embrace about being human.

Everything in you is there to help you enhance your life and advance your well-being, including the most “negative” of emotions.

Fear is a healthy defense mechanism that helps to protect you from harm. If you had zero fear of heights, then you might have made a very silly (and life-threatening) move a long time ago.

Even your pain sensors exist to ensure that you don’t cause your body any damage, and that you give your injuries the attention they need for recovery.

There are no natural self-destruct  buttons in human beings.

Everything within us has a life-affirming purpose.

And you don’t gravitate towards excuses because you love making them, but because they help to protect your self-image.

And that’s where most problems spring from.

You’re not directing your human faculties to the protection and advancement of your self, but your self-image, that impression you and others have of yourself.

Excuses overlook facts in order to create positive perceptions.

Fear of failure arises as your means of protecting your self-image from being tainted by the reputation of “failure”, even when the failures aren’t truly life-threatening.

It’s highly unlikely that you’ll get shot down if you make a mistake giving a public speech, but we’re too afraid of having our self-image and reputation tarnished that we’re willing to limit our life experiences so that we’re never caught making a mistake or putting ourselves in a situation where others might laugh at us.

We seek to blame others for our shortcomings, even when we know that doesn’t bring us any closer to our goals. But it does reassure us that our self-image is protected from criticism, and so we settle for broken dreams rather than a wounded self-image.

The cause of many, many problems in our lives isn’t the fear of failure or the fear of success. These are symptoms.

And they arise because we care more about how others see us and how we see ourselves more than we care about growing as individuals, and making mistakes along the way.

What would happen if you stop caring about what others think of you when you make mistakes?

What would happen if you stop identifying with the mistakes you make and the failures you experience?

What would happen if you stop deriving your self-worth from what you possess, what results you get and how others see you?

You’ll realize that you’ve been investing a great deal of mental and emotional energy in protecting your self-image, which could’ve been invested in moving your life forward.

If “hacking at the branches” is a strategy that hasn’t been serving you well in life, then “striking at the root” might be a better alternative.

It’s time you let go of the self-image that’s holding you back and embrace yourself – with all the weaknesses you possess – so that you can get to experience genuine growth in life.


* This study was conducted by me, in a dark room with 3 knives, a dartboard, and 2 bananas (a researcher’s gotta eat!).

Categories
Self

A Guide to Being Yourself

punk_girl_with_mohawkTake as much time as you need to laugh at how ridiculous the title of this post is.

Once you’re done, come back to discover why it’s not so ridiculous.

I’m sure you’ve never come across a book that taught glass cups what to do when falling to the ground, or instructional videos that taught cats how to “meow”, but why do human beings need a guide to teach them how to be themselves?

Aren’t we all being ourselves already? After all, who else can we be?

The advice to “be yourself” isn’t as simple as many writers make it out to be. I included it in the 7 ideas that are probably ruining your life list for a reason: when a complex idea is dished out in a simplistic way, misunderstandings are likely to ensue.

If you are being yourself, is there any need for personal growth and character development? What are you developing towards?

I have come across many individuals who are disrespectful to others, and the only apology they can offer is to shrug and say: “I’m just being myself.”

But who are you?

What do you identify yourself with?

Are you the way you acted as a child? Or the hobbies you enjoyed as a teen? Or the subject you studied in college? Or the career you pursued as an adult?

Are you defined by what you eat? Or how you look? Or who you spend time with? Or how much money you have in your account? Or how many cars decorate your driveway?

Is it your sense of humor? Or the way you speak? Or the movies you enjoy watching? Or the way you handle stress?

Is it how you see yourself? Or how others see you?

Is it how you feel? Or what you think? Or what you do?

Is it the culture you belong to? The religion you believe in? The society you live in? The family name you carry?

If you are being yourself, then what happens when you seek to change? Are you compromising who you are?

There’s more to being yourself than… being yourself.

Who You Are

You are not your thoughts, but the one who thinks those thoughts.

You are not your feelings, but the one who experiences those feelings.

You are not your actions, but the one who chooses those actions.

You are not what people think of you or what you think of yourself.

Those are impressions based on past decisions you’ve made.

You are the one who decides what you think, what you feel, and what you do.

The one who chooses is You.

Identifying with your thoughts, feelings and actions strips you from your ability to choose, change and grow.

It makes you defensive and offensive.

It makes you vulnerable and aggressive.

To truly be yourself, you have to develop a healthy relationship with your thoughts, your feelings and your actions, so that you don’t see yourself as being those things, and overlooking the choice you are able to exercise.

What You Think

Authority figures rarely endorse freedom of thought.

Instead, they want others to blindly accept their convictions and values, and to lead their lives accordingly.

Politicians try to dictate what citizens can and can’t do.

Religious figures demand that their congregations not question the message delivered to them.

Teachers expect students to learn the material they are taught, and to keep their questions for their parents.

Parents teach their children to listen to them, because they know better.

We grow up relying on the thinking others have done on our behalf, without question.

That doesn’t mean that we no longer think.

Thinking is a necessary part of our lives. We’re always collecting information and processing it.

It does mean that we think within the worldview we were taught to believe is truth and according to the values we were brought up to accept as moral.

But we can’t make sense of our experiences on our own.

Being yourself means that you take on the responsibility to think for yourself, without feeling obliged to accept the beliefs and values of others.

Sure you can ask people for their opinions and insights, but you respect your own intellect and your own ability to evaluate the ideas that come your way.

What You Feel

Emotions are often perceived as a weakness, but that’s only because they are gravely misunderstood.

We cannot function properly as human beings without our emotions, both negative and positive.

What we feel indicates to us what thoughts are operating (often subconsciously) in our minds, and our feelings are a physical expression of our own values.

To condemn your feelings isn’t healthy. They’re only revealing what you think.

Rather than shun them or suppress them, listen to them.

What are they telling you? What can you learn from them about your thoughts and values?

When you feel angry, you are not the anger. You are the one experiencing the anger.

But why are you feeling angry in the first place?

Do you believe it’s the right emotion to convey, at the right time and to the right degree?

Here “right” doesn’t mean socially acceptable. It means that it supports your life and well-being.

If anger gets in the way of constructive communication, then it’s unhealthy. But if it compels you to confront injustice, then it’s healthy.

What matters is that you give yourself the space to feel and listen to your feelings, without judging or condemning yourself, or identifying with your emotions.

Emotions stem from thoughts and your thoughts are of your choosing. It is up to you what emotions you would like to cultivate, based on the thoughts you choose to have.

What You Do

What makes habits so difficult to change isn’t the habits themselves, but who we think we are, based on what we have done in the past.

If you’ve struggled to wake up early in the past, you may conclude that you’re “not a morning person.”

If you’ve acted violently towards others, then you may conclude that you’re “short-tempered.”

These labels you place on yourself dictate how you lead your life and what decisions you’ll make in the future, based on the decisions you’ve made in the past.

The implicit thought behind your decisions is: “If I was me, what would I do?”

And then you act according to that answer.

But that answer is your self-image. It’s not who you are.

Being yourself isn’t about embracing your self-image.

It’s about abandoning your self-image and realizing the ability you have to choose other behaviors, and develop different habits.

Again, you are the one that chooses. You are not the choice you make.

All the characteristics and labels you’ve placed on yourself, based on your past behaviors, only reveal how you’ve behaved in the past. They do not reveal who you are.

Just because you’ve made poor decisions in the past doesn’t mean you have to remain consistent with those decisions.

Such a commitment is a betrayal of yourself, since you’re abandoning your ability to choose.

How To Be Yourself

The default approach to take to “being yourself” is to go against what society expects you to do and rebel against The System.

But that’s the opposite side of the same coin: using society as a standard of how to live your life.

To be yourself, you need to embrace your own ability to choose your thoughts, your feelings and your actions.

You are willing to listen to others, but ultimately decide for yourself.

You can have strong convictions and remain open to accepting new ideas.

You can experience intense emotions and be willing to listen to them, or change them if they don’t serve your life.

You can act with passion and be able to evaluate your own behaviors, without falsely concluding that you are the decisions you’ve made in your past.

To be yourself, you create the space needed for you to consider the alternative options open to you, and to choose for yourself.

That’s what being yourself is about.

Photo credit: D Sharon Pruitt (a.k.a. Pink Sherbet)