Identity and Truth
January 20th 2012 23:28
Are you really ready to make 2012 your best year yet? It’s everywhere that question. Personally, I am a tad tired of it. As if all you had to do was say, YES I can, and behold the change occurs. Maybe this has been your experience. I’d love to hear from you if it has. It can be as easy as that for a few, the people who have been mulling over who they are and what their lives have been for a while, people who have a strong desire to get over the old rubbish and recreate themselves as new.
For most of us, the initial energy and impetus of a new year begins to be swamped by the waves of work issues, family issues, relationship issues, and making the effort to change how you approach all of this differently is just too hard. It is easier to use tried and tested methods that have been used a million times and got you results...maybe the same results that have given you the frustration, regret, irritation, exasperation, sadness, acceptance of your lot. But these are comfortable shoes.
My question is, are you living your own truth? This is one of my values, living my truth comes near to the top of my list in fact. It has taken me a long time to see this as important for me to be able to do what I need to do and be who I need to be to follow my dreams and purpose. And in doing this, I have had to look myself in the face and go beyond accepting who I was. Like everyone else, I am a work in progress. My truth may not be your truth but it gives me direction. As I am a work in progress, I may find my truth changes and grows and becomes even clearer.
I have found a bunch of quotes by people writing, singing or philosophising about truth. Here they are in no particular order. Maybe one will leap out at you.
"The truth will set you free. But first, it will piss you off." Gloria Steinem
“The folks who know the truth aren't talking…. The ones who don't have a clue, you can't shut them up!” Tom Waits
“Men stumble over the truth from time to time, but most pick themselves up and hurry off as if nothing happened.” Winston Churchill
“Learn to go inside yourself, because this is the source of all truth.” Harold Klemp
I think that finding one’s own truth is closely linked to identity. This is very interesting as we create, build and reinforce our identity constantly don’t we?
For example, if a person were a doctor or nurse or chiropractor or anyone in the field of supporting human health, their professional identity would appear to be very clear to themselves and their patients. One would imagine their truth would be around the old Latin phrase which came from Ancient Greek philosophy, mensa in corpore sano, a healthy mind in a healthy body, or something or other like it. However, one of the highest rates of drug addiction is in the medical profession.
Most of us have many documents that state our identity like a driver’s licence, passport, birth certificate, library card, bank card, student card, shop cards. My wallet is full of plastic things that ‘prove’ my identity, to the outside world. And who am I to myself? Would I really want to know? I have spent a lifetime finding out and I am still open to growth and new vistas.
People often strongly relate their identity to their work which gives them security and certainty and a solid label to set upon themselves. If they were to step outside this, might it challenge them to really find out who they are on the inside? Some people find another identity in their religion, culture, sport, community, family, friends, hobbies, creative outlets, other people and things to do that take up time and energy outside work. All of this is terrific.
What happens when all of this isn’t enough? What happens when people change professions, divorce, leave their community? How can you find a new identity easily? Where can you find the balance with the new you and all that was you and with you before? It depends on your flexibility, resilience, self belief, reasons for needing to and deciding to re-find yourself anew. It depends on how much courage you can find to remove yourself from what made you who you were before.
Here are some quotes on identity. I wonder what might ring out for you.
“It is not only the most difficult thing to know oneself, but the most inconvenient one, too.” H.W. Shaw
“The man who views the world at fifty the same as he did at twenty has wasted thirty years of his life.” Muhammad Ali
“There are people who live their whole lives on the default settings, never realizing you can customize.” Robert Brault
“Man cannot remake himself without suffering, for he is both the marble and the sculptor.” Dr. Alexis Carrel
In my line of work, I talk with and listen to people who are often facing challenges in life. It could be a desire for change; it could be something outside their control has forced change upon them; it could be simply discomfort with their lives and they know there is something they need to resolve.
When you decide to find your own truth, go deeper into your own identity, you are beginning an amazing journey. What are your values? What are your beliefs? You may find you are no longer pretending to be someone, like a character in a play. You can write your own life scripts.
You don’t need to throw the baby out with the bath water. Finding your truth means living your life more purposefully and you understand why you are in this profession; why you fell in love with that wonderful person. You begin to know who you are at a deeper level. It may mean other changes and that is a choice you decide on if they arise.
Transformation and transition require courage, audacity and flexibility. Doing the same old, same old, will get you the same as, same as. Could 2012 be your best year yet? Is there a bigger goal, beyond 2012? Could this be your best life yet?
I wish you well on your journey.
For most of us, the initial energy and impetus of a new year begins to be swamped by the waves of work issues, family issues, relationship issues, and making the effort to change how you approach all of this differently is just too hard. It is easier to use tried and tested methods that have been used a million times and got you results...maybe the same results that have given you the frustration, regret, irritation, exasperation, sadness, acceptance of your lot. But these are comfortable shoes.
My question is, are you living your own truth? This is one of my values, living my truth comes near to the top of my list in fact. It has taken me a long time to see this as important for me to be able to do what I need to do and be who I need to be to follow my dreams and purpose. And in doing this, I have had to look myself in the face and go beyond accepting who I was. Like everyone else, I am a work in progress. My truth may not be your truth but it gives me direction. As I am a work in progress, I may find my truth changes and grows and becomes even clearer.
I have found a bunch of quotes by people writing, singing or philosophising about truth. Here they are in no particular order. Maybe one will leap out at you.
"The truth will set you free. But first, it will piss you off." Gloria Steinem
“The folks who know the truth aren't talking…. The ones who don't have a clue, you can't shut them up!” Tom Waits
“Men stumble over the truth from time to time, but most pick themselves up and hurry off as if nothing happened.” Winston Churchill
“Learn to go inside yourself, because this is the source of all truth.” Harold Klemp
I think that finding one’s own truth is closely linked to identity. This is very interesting as we create, build and reinforce our identity constantly don’t we?
For example, if a person were a doctor or nurse or chiropractor or anyone in the field of supporting human health, their professional identity would appear to be very clear to themselves and their patients. One would imagine their truth would be around the old Latin phrase which came from Ancient Greek philosophy, mensa in corpore sano, a healthy mind in a healthy body, or something or other like it. However, one of the highest rates of drug addiction is in the medical profession.
Most of us have many documents that state our identity like a driver’s licence, passport, birth certificate, library card, bank card, student card, shop cards. My wallet is full of plastic things that ‘prove’ my identity, to the outside world. And who am I to myself? Would I really want to know? I have spent a lifetime finding out and I am still open to growth and new vistas.
People often strongly relate their identity to their work which gives them security and certainty and a solid label to set upon themselves. If they were to step outside this, might it challenge them to really find out who they are on the inside? Some people find another identity in their religion, culture, sport, community, family, friends, hobbies, creative outlets, other people and things to do that take up time and energy outside work. All of this is terrific.
What happens when all of this isn’t enough? What happens when people change professions, divorce, leave their community? How can you find a new identity easily? Where can you find the balance with the new you and all that was you and with you before? It depends on your flexibility, resilience, self belief, reasons for needing to and deciding to re-find yourself anew. It depends on how much courage you can find to remove yourself from what made you who you were before.
Here are some quotes on identity. I wonder what might ring out for you.
“It is not only the most difficult thing to know oneself, but the most inconvenient one, too.” H.W. Shaw
“The man who views the world at fifty the same as he did at twenty has wasted thirty years of his life.” Muhammad Ali
“There are people who live their whole lives on the default settings, never realizing you can customize.” Robert Brault
“Man cannot remake himself without suffering, for he is both the marble and the sculptor.” Dr. Alexis Carrel
In my line of work, I talk with and listen to people who are often facing challenges in life. It could be a desire for change; it could be something outside their control has forced change upon them; it could be simply discomfort with their lives and they know there is something they need to resolve.
When you decide to find your own truth, go deeper into your own identity, you are beginning an amazing journey. What are your values? What are your beliefs? You may find you are no longer pretending to be someone, like a character in a play. You can write your own life scripts.
You don’t need to throw the baby out with the bath water. Finding your truth means living your life more purposefully and you understand why you are in this profession; why you fell in love with that wonderful person. You begin to know who you are at a deeper level. It may mean other changes and that is a choice you decide on if they arise.
Transformation and transition require courage, audacity and flexibility. Doing the same old, same old, will get you the same as, same as. Could 2012 be your best year yet? Is there a bigger goal, beyond 2012? Could this be your best life yet?
I wish you well on your journey.
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