Do not be Dishonest in Defining Yourself

Hello Friends!

If you judge yourself by how your fellow human beings treat you, truly, you will live a life of insecurity and despair. If you judge yourself by your rejections and accolades, you will be lost. This is because you will only see, and thus know, yourself through the lens of those who do not have the faintest clue about  who you are, of what you are capable or the purpose of your being.

If someone does not really know how to use a device or much about its purpose, he may call it useless, and throw it away. Does this make the device itself useless? Of course not. The device is as useful as it was created to be. That someone is ignorant of its use does not make it useless.

People will react to you based on the boundaries of their experience. You cannot, for the sake of being pleasing or acceptable, limit yourself. In the same vein, you cannot, for fear of rejection or disapproval, shut down.

A person’s success is not defined by how many people take notice of her, but by her ability to be herself in spite of any and all ignorance of her worth and intrinsic value. She must know that she does what she does because she was created to do it. So, when the storms of an ignorant disapproval turn up, because they surely will, she must stand as tall as a mountain, undeterred by everything around it, sure and steady in itself.

What does it take for her to get there? It takes a lot. Because she is born into a world where it is generally agreed that the most sensible thing to do is the thing that has the most consensus, ignoring its validity and truth. This is a world where the “craziest” people are those who ignore everyone and do whatever it is they believe represents their truth.

In such a world, how is it possible, that she begins to define her success, not out of fear of disapproval, but a love for and understanding of who she is and the reason for her being?

There must be a resilience and consistency in listening to and reminding herself of the truth. Because it is this truth that she will need to keep coming back to, to steady her on her path. It is this truth that drives away the lies of fear. It is this truth that keeps her true to herself, her purpose, and essence of her being. She must learn to affirm to herself and believe:

“THE ONLY PERSON I NEED TO IMPRESS IS MYSELF”.

This requires honesty

It requires truth

And a mindful attention to Self.

For it is dishonest to look at yourself and be disappointed. It is dishonest to play down your presence in the lives of others because it does not come with a numerical valuation. It is very dishonest when you fail to see who you are because you live in a world that may be blind to your truth.

If you use the eyes of other people to see yourself, what you are really seeing is a construction, an amalgam of nonsense, built with the varied, often misinterpreted and one-sided experiences of these people. That is not who you are.

See yourself as you are - worthy- full of worth, and a ray of light in what can often be a dark world.

See yourself.

Do not judge.

Instead, try to understand.

And continue to show yourself the utmost level of compassion possible.

Because truly, you are worth it.

Love,

O.F.P.