Fly Through Illusions To Reach The Magic of Knowing Yourself

The hardest thing is to really know yourself.  You are kind of like one of those hidden drawers in a roll top desk.  There are a lot of things to see on the desk, which is how you show up in the world.  It hides all of the physical aspects of the desk.  Then when you start looking at the desk itself, and open the roll top there is another layer of things to get distracted by.  All of the obvious nooks and crannies and drawers.

If you really examine the desk inch by inch you discover that something seems to be a little off.  Being curious you start pushing and pulling on the wood of the desk.  Inch by inch your fingers keep looking for the hidden lever, until the hidden drawer suddenly pops open.  You’ve found the real you.  It takes concentration, patience and the ability to be curious instead of judgmental.

“Knowing others is wisdom.  Knowing yourself is enlightenment”  – Lao Tzu

So what does this really mean? Taking this even a step further, is accepting what you discover about yourself.

“When you know yourself, you are empowered.  When you accept yourself, you are invincible”  – Tina Lifford

For me, it is how as children you are taught what being successful is.  You are taught to get good grades.  You are taught to go for higher education for a particular type of job.  Medical fields, teaching fields, computer science fields and so on.  You are taught to excel in school and then go to work and excel in your chosen profession.  In school I was lucky enough to have an amazing teacher who taught me to take concepts apart to truly understand what they meant.  To use the How, What, Why kinds of questions to explore what it really means.

“Know who you are.  Know what you want.  Know what you deserve.  And don’t settle for less”  – Tony Gaskins

What you should do first is really understand yourself.  Know what your passions are in life.  What lights you up and makes you happy?  Having a healthy self esteem, that really knows what your values and talents are.  Most importantly, what your personal genius is.  Once you have identified those, you know who you are at your core being.  What makes you happy.  How you can best serve others.

Then it is up to you to go out and find the profession that meets all of the criteria.  Instead you have been so busy being educated, that you missed the importance of self knowledge in the equation.  Instead, you have navigated or simply stumbled into a profession that is not a true calling.  It’s a paycheck.

How did you choose that profession?  Maybe on the advice of a favorite teacher.  Maybe you were steered by your parents into what they felt was a financially rewarding career.  Maybe it was for the glamour of the profession.  In Hollywood many careers are based on dreams of being a Emmy awarded singer, or winning an Oscar.  If it is truly your “dream job”, would you do it even if they didn’t pay you?

What did you really know about this profession before you entered it?  What illusions did you have about what your profession would give back to you?  How did your passion and purpose play into this profession?  What about your personal genius?  That thing you do that is so easy for you, that you don’t understand why everyone can’t do it? Does it fulfill your divine destiny?  Clarity is powerful.  Pay attention to day dreams, where your mind wanders is an important clue to what you are really seeking in life.

“Are we living  our dream?  Or are we living somebody else’s dream?”  – Arianne Huffington

Truly knowing who you are requires a toughness of the soul.  Knowing yourself in all of the ways that matter, means that you:

• Know your own mind; what your thoughts are, what thoughts need changing = attitude
• Knowing your own heart; and following where it leads, the souls direction = faith
• Knowing your own strengths; and playing from that space of strength = grace
• Knowing your own limitations; and accepting them for what they are = peace
• Knowing your own values; and never crossing them = nature
• Know your fears; they tell you what is really important = mastery

“You have to love yourself, because no amount of love from others is sufficient to full the yearning that your soul requires from you” –  Dobinsky

The world needs you to know yourself, be yourself, love yourself and trust yourself.  It is the only way to get from who you are, to who you want to be.  It is the only way to figure our what you need to shift, change, release and transform to get to where you want to be.  Knowing yourself isn’t easy.  It is usually messy, not pretty.

It is about accepting the parts of yourself that even you are hiding from.  It is stripping away the stories that you tell, that whitewash your less than stellar qualities.  It is about taking down the illusions, removing the cloaks of invisibility and loving what remains.  Own the place of your soul.  Stand tall and take inventory.  Then shift and change and transform into the best version of you.  It isn’t easy, but it is priceless.

“Here’s the truth:  people who get what they want tend to be the ones to make the effort to know what they want”  – Martha Beck