Insights 4:?I am what I believe I am
31 March 2021
Thoughtful quotations:
“It is better to live your own destiny imperfectly than to live an imitation of somebody else’s life with perfection†Bhagavad 3.35
The only power that a label has over me is the power I give it†Joel Osten
“I am pregnant with promise†Joel Osten
Context for reflection:
Self-awareness is a powerful driver of self-belief as this identity ensures we are grounded. We understand who we are from our day-to-day actions. Understanding self requires a deep introspection, one that we sometimes override with our busy lives and desire to achieve and be successful. To be seen to be successful, thereby satisfying the ego. We can also be side tracked by allowing some of the negative labels of life to have power over us. But following this busy course or allowing labels to have power, without remembering who we are, may be to follow inappropriate sign boards.
Jay Shetty, reminds us to live with “intentâ€. By becoming aware of our every interaction with people, things and our environment, we develop our self-awareness.
We are a product of how we spend our time. We all have the potential to grow from a worm and soar like a butterfly, but for not believing and acting on our potential, our promise. To achieve our promise, we need to use our self-awareness to develop our belief in the future we wish to create.
An exercise and question for you:
- Track your time over a typical week to see where you spend time, family, work, health, friends and self. Does where you spend time align reasonably with what you value most?
- What are doing when you are at your best? (Ask close family and friends to write this down for you) Look at the patterns in your feedback missing punctuation in this paragraph
- How can you turn your best skills into action?
Drafted in all humility as I continue my journey of discovery. It is indeed a challenging and with so much to remember and learn.
Andrew Pons
References:
Shetty, J, Think like a monk, HarperCollins Publishers, 2020
Osteen, J, Think better Live better, Hachette Group Inc, 2016