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WORDS FOR THOUGHT...
Sometimes we look inside ourselves and we see a person and a path
that greatly contrasts with who we presently are. Those times are
filled with both pain and joy. The pain spawned from the lacking
compared to who we can be, and the joy from the reaching and
expansion to see and reach that place - to know our individual
potential.
Let me warn you that in such cases if you should choose to accept
your potential and head in that direction, people may resist the
great changes in your life that are sure to follow. At times, when
we see say a fully different career path or personal path and
method of achievement and choose to in fact take that new path,
we will upset the apple cart as far as others' views of us go.
Since success isn't worldly goods or riches but is actually fullness
of soul through completeness of living, these path changes can
appear unconventional at best to lookers-on. For example, let's say
you are attending business college, and in the last year of college
you awaken to your epiphany that business isn't what you wish to
pursue; Instead, you wish to be an artist or a marine biologist.
If you follow your heartfelt course, knowing it is who you
really wish to be, you are likely to upset some people's views of
your sanity and choices.
"Oh, look how you've wasted all this time!" they may press you.
"You are a drifter and a dreamer," they may further push,
particularly when you remain undaunted on your new course. Keep your
peace about you, and realize that you will meet resistance from your
present environment, but that needn't stop you if courage and the
burning desire to find your fullness are fed.
At times like these, whether you are changing course with your career
or entirely remodeling your values and direction - whatever the
major course change - realize that your inner knowing and
clear vision of who you are is what must guide you if you are to
truly excel to your potential. Your answers are within. If you wish
to discuss your new path, I warn you to do so only with those who can
share your vision. Old friends and relatives may not prove the
wisest choices. Many of you know what I mean...
The ironic thing I've found is that it is those very people who
have had the most difficult time accepting the changes in my life
who are the ones who look back on their pasts and say, "Gee, I wish I
had..." or "If only I had had the faith in myself to..."
I don't wish to live that life. To you now, I suggest strongly that
if we can find that inner peace and stand within that place - about
who you are as an individual and where and how you choose to get
there - such storms will in time pass. The people who now resist
your choices and who you are becoming will in time see that you are
more dedicated than ever and that their "just concern" was
unfounded. They will see the life in you. They will see the light
in your lovely eyes. How can they not?
Most of all, realize that your resisting people who disapprove of
your choices is NOT necessary. Simply be who you wish to be in any
given moment, making the highest choices and those choices truly best
for you, and accept their disapproval as a duck accepts the water
beading down her back.
I guarantee you that things will go in one of two ways:
(1) In time, your present people will see your success and happiness
through your dedication, even if not admitted.
(2) Either that or they won't!
But you know what? Their approval doesn't account for anything
worthwhile. If these words shock you, perhaps you must evaluate
who's approval you must find first and exclusively first and last:
your own. Loving people don't shed their approval. They simply
accept. So that is how you can approach their lack of approval.
Simply accept it and put it aside as you would put away the evening
dishes.
While it is necessary that we really examine what is really "best"
for us in each moment as we navigate our individual paths, the
people who choose living fully and completely based on their
dreams will find a greater fullness. It feels like a risk and may
prove out risky to your old way of living. However, once we
realize that the only real death we EVER live is through
non-living, the risks seems much less severe.
If our people never can accept us, we must be willing to face the
facts. I have.
This is really to say that life will
provide me the environment in which to truly and fully live, if I
trust life. This requires a willingness to accept disapproval at
times, and to walk away as gently and lovingly as is possible. It
can be lonely at the top, but your heart will tell you the rightness
of your chosen path.
-Writer Unknown
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