I have learned a very difficult and deep lesson over the last 12 years. It is a fragile, yet powerful, idea that transforms your life from mediocre to truly significant: You are more than your skills and abilities.
The challenge however is letting go. You have to be brave enough to ask yourself what lies beyond your known, fortified self-image informed by how good you are at your job; how funny you are; how pretty you are…
Pulling this off is however a little bit of a reverse magic trick. As any good magician worth his salt will tell you, to pull of any great illusion you need to incorporate distraction. The only difference here is that you are actually trying to reveal the illusion insted of creating it. What we need here is some light on the matter to dispel the darkness and thereby reverse the magic trick. You have to take your eyes of the distraction and focus on what’s being hidden away right in front of your eyes.
The illusion is that you are the sum total of your abilities, competencies, talents and skills. We are dirven to prove that we can handle three kids and smile when hubby comes home at night even though we are desperate inside to be loved and appreciated. We tell our frineds that we are very busy and look oh so important, but inside we are dying trying to uphold this false image.
At work we will not tell anyone that we are afraid of failure becasue we will be seen as incompetent, inadequate or irrelevant. We prop up our egos and buy unnecessary big cars to make sure our place at the boardroom table is secure.
If only we could see that we are loved beyond all comprehension just becasue we are who we are. Before we perform, excel, accomplish or achieve we already are enough. I have my conviction about the world we live in and I know that I am loved, approved and accepted. I can however not make up your mind for you and I cannot transform your heart. This is the reverse magic trick: You have to displace your lost and empty self with the true version as you were before creation.
Go from survive to alive