Time, money, possessions, certainly these are fundamental things which will be put on the chopping block when attempting to reach your fullest potential, but what about you?
If you had to sacrifice your self could you do it?
No… I’m not talking about a Mayan sacrifice ritual where you must give your body to the Gods in return for something like rain, what I’m talking about is the self which is far harder to identify beyond the physicality of ones body, it’s a place rooted in the mind.
Science has a long way to go in attempting to uncover even a spec of information relating to our consciousness and awareness, the functions and power of the human brain, and the miraculous tasks it is capable of completing using complex rational and logical thought processes which the worlds smartest computers remain incapable of copying. As Albert Einstein said “the more we learn, the less we know”.
Ironically, researches and philosophers alike are finding more truth, quantifiable truth, in ancient texts relating to the power of our awareness than the vast modern theoretical proposals which permeate the “superficial” scientific communities and ignore the infinite meta-reality foundation of our existence.
One such truth, for example, is the Placebo effect where in Soldiers during world war two were given saline drips or sugar pills instead of morphine when supplies were low, they were told that the product was morphine though, and to relax. The Soldiers ingested the pill or watched as the saline drip continued and shortly after became delirious while allowing surgeons to operate on them and feeling little to no pain. Their conscious awareness of the product they were ingesting and the subconscious expectation or belief in that product was so strong that they unconsciously allowed themselves to become what they thought they were receiving through little more than believing they were actually receiving it.
Ancient philosophers, theologians and religious enlightenment thinkers from all corners of the worlds spectrum of beliefs have been debating and discussing the topic of self-awareness and belief in ones self for millennia. Today, we have deduced these complex ideological ancient theories to the likes of “the law of attraction” and using similar terms like that to explain our thoughts and how they can become our reality through focus, awareness and devotion to cause.
Today, people in the western world do not spend a life time chasing enlightenment or allowing their mental awareness to develop through complex practice, today we want it NOW.
I’m not saying you cannot achieve progress towards your biggest goals, most true self or anything else you desire right now in the current moment, but what are you willing to shed in order to gain? what is it that you can put on the chopping block to allow yourself to have a better chance to gain what you envision for yourself? As I mentioned earlier, certainly time, money and possessions are a part of that sacrifice but make up only half of the necessary equation.
As we grow up we adapt our personalities to our environment, don’t believe me? look at NYC, Philly, or look at Parisians or Californians. Over time we create an illusionary self to blend in with the rest of our culture or community. For some people, this base line adaptation is a good fit for who they actually are, they find very little resistance in becoming part of the masses, after all that is why the base line foundation of adaptive culture has prevailed for hundreds of years in some places. For others though, for you reading this, you have faced a great deal of resistance in the day to day formalities of life’s journey.
If you feel like something is missing, you aren’t alone. Millions more are beginning to create conversation around the topic and a quick Google search can give credence to that. We must, in no uncertain terms, be willing to totally and completely rid our selves of the false ego we have created in order to match the puzzle pieces of the immediate environment around us and consider what we are on a national, international, world and cosmic scale in order to gain perspective of the baggage we have been carrying. Your ego is holding you back. The best way to test the theory is to stand in front of a crowd of people and begin passionately singing, to which you may reply “absolutely not”. Consider though, whether you are actually nervous and frightened, or simply embarrassed to sing in front of the people and what they will think of you when you do. Those on the streets of our largest cities who perform without fear or hesitation draw us in as we pass by not usually because the act is extraordinary, but simply because they’re doing it.
In a similar manner, we are drawn to people who accomplish big things and follow their dreams in media, entertainment, and global spot lights, not because what they do is necessarily the most amazing thing you’ve ever heard of or seen, but simply because they’re the ones doing it. You could be any one of those people at any time you make the decision to commit to doing so, but your ego holds you back and forces you to consider other peoples opinions, your families thoughts, your friends thoughts and everyone else you’ve ever known. By considering every outside factor (external) and ignoring the only one that matters, the internal factor, you are allowing other people to fully control your life through a monotonous process of constant and soul crushing comparison.
Are you willing to sell everything you have and work at McDonald’s if it meant you had the ability to unequivocally chase your highest aspirations? If the answer is no, why? Sure the pay is bad, I suppose that is an excuse one might make for him or herself in the event that they don’t actually believe in their ability to reach their dreams or are not prepared to begin trying, but that is just a superficial response. If that opportunity arose would you avoid it because of pay or would you avoid it because of outside opinion? If I told some that their goal, aspiration or enlightenment is at the end of the tunnel, but first they must sell everything and go to work at McDonald's, most would never try and others would quit in a week. You need to release the ego, the side of the self which expects things right now, which has an attention span of five seconds, which considers everyone else’s opinions before the self’s true dreams, and you must cast it away into the fire of awareness that it won’t ever allow you to achieve true solitude with yourself.
Recently in the news there was an article about a man by the name of Dr. Jonny Kim. Dr. Kim is Navy Seal, a Harvard trained Doctor and is now an astronaut for NASA. Besides loving to hear stories like that which cross the threshold of what the average person believes they are capable of, I love seeing peoples reactions to it. I scrolled comments on social media relating to it and peoples endless amazement went on virtually forever. People were amazed, shocked even, to see a man of his caliber doing all of these incredible things, yet they are incredible only to the person whose dreams the ego places at lesser than ones own goals and accomplishments. To Dr. Kim, (and I speculate of course) it is just another day being proud of his path forward and dominating every aspect of his personal and professional life, but to outsiders, it is a feat of super intelligent creation, a gift which only he possesses. What a shame that we do not see ourselves as adequate enough to be Navy Seal, Harvard doctor astronauts, what a shame that we cannot envision anything else for ourselves except the immediate reality and environment around us.
The capability of one is the capability of all, no not always physically, but consciously. For some, they may have no aspiration to be a “Navydoctornaut”…not because they cannot imagine it, but because they sincerely do not want that at all. As with all, we have individual passions and skills which others do not posses, if we lack those, then I’ve found we still have something to teach another using our life as a lesson for someone else’s which is equally as important. No matter what, we are connected and can reach these higher attainments but you have to be courageous enough, brave enough, daring enough to cast years of self doubting, self limiting, self defeating ideology to the curb and begin to imagine your wildest goals as a product of your current reality. Once you make the decision to make decisions for yourself, you begin the process by which you may be able to free yourself from the mediocrity which left you chained to others expectations and opinions. It takes just as much energy to work for someone else’s dreams as it does your own, it takes just as much risk not to take risk, as it does to take risk, and it is just as painful in never trying to be the greatest version of yourself, as the inevitable failures will be along the way when you do.
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