Recently I was part of a project that I hope to announce in more detail in due time but there are a few things I wish to share with you about it.
- It completely took me out of my comfort zone.
- I had two options; be authentic in my self expression or play a role I feel would have had the best likelihood of success in the context of this project.
This lead me to a crossroad I have seen many times before. A fork in the road.
- If I played ‘the role’ I felt would do best in this project, and failed – I would forever regret throwing away the opportunity.
- If I played ‘the role’ I felt would do best in this project, and found success – all I would know is that I have been on the wrong track and the whim of a good bet paid off.
Losing a bet is a shitty feeling but a greater burden to bare is the feeling of being unexpressed.
We often hide behind masks, in hopes of hedging the crude taste of rejection or failure. I think there is a battle we all face within ourselves that constantly struggles between truly accepting our current thoughts and values as a hedge of last resort; in an effort to shield ourselves from experiencing true and absolute (perceived) failure. (For a further deep dive take on this concept, check out my piece called Puppet Masters for the Logicrats Project)
But once we learn a very fundamental truth about reality, we can never seem to go back to how it was. And that is:
We are not our ideas. Ideas are tools that we use to understand the world around us.
And the moment we realize we are not our ideas, we begin to play a very different game all together.
We stop interpreting ‘rejection’ and ‘failure’ as a reflection of our character and begin to rightly associate the ‘rejection’ and ‘failure’ as a reflection of the ideas we hold to be true.
Authenticity has very little to do with you and much more to do with expressing what you hold to be true.
So what’s the moral of the story?
Well…the moral is –
It’s not about you – get over it.
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