“Keep your dreams alive. Understand to achieve anything requires faith and belief in yourself, vision, hard work, determination, and dedication. Remember all things are possible for those who believe.” Gail Devers
Remember when you were growing up and people constantly asked “what do you want to be when you grow up?” Most of our ideas were revealed through our natural strengths and abilities. For many of us, our natural talents eventually became overshadowed by what others thought was best for us. In Finding Your Own North Star, Martha Beck introduces the concepts of the essential self and the social self. Martha says “your essential self formed before you were born, and it will remain until you’ve shuffled off your mortal coil. It’s the personality you got from your genes: your characteristic desires, preferences, emotional reactions and involuntary physiological responses, bound together by an overall sense of identity.” In contrast, the social self is the self you’ve formed in response to feedback from the people around you.
Martha believes a balance of the essential and social selves are necessary to avoid competition between them. If your essential self didn’t play a key role in determining your career, you’re likely suffering with much internal strife and unhappiness. If your daily j-o-b mindset involves schlepping to work, let me introduce you to Dan Miller. In his book 48 Days To The Work You Love, Dan challenges the idea that work is meant to be loathed, and refers to your true calling as your “vocation”. The word vocation is chosen over job and career to emphasize work as only one part of the total equation of your calling. “Vocation then is not so much pursuing a goal as it is listening for a voice. Before I can tell my life what I want to do with it, I must listen for that voice telling me who I am.”
Stop looking outside of yourself for answers that have been within you all along. Begin to sit in silence occasionally and just be. In time, your mind will quiet down and the voice of your essential self will emerge in the form of intuition. That gut feeling will become the beacon leading your each and every move. It will make you infinitely more confident and able to let the influences of the social self wash over you without defining you. Pay tribute to your essential self by nurturing it for a few minutes each day. Remember, if you don’t fight for your dreams, no one else will!
Resources:
Martha Beck’s Free Happiness Course and Archives
Dan Miller (signup for his free newsletter to stay motivated)
You can call me Tranquil Beauty. After spending a good portion of my life being disillusioned by my mind, I’m finally on a path led by my true self. I'm here because I've been blessed by the wisdom of so many others who powerfully emulate what it means to live guided by their own purpose. I'm profoundly grateful to share the knowledge I’ve gained after being enlightened by Neale Donald Walsch, Rick Warren, Eckhart Tolle, and Shakti Gawain (to name only a few). I feel this wisdom has permeated my being and shifted my focus from the past and the limitations of my mind to a state of pure consciousness that seeks to honor my true self. I've been a personal development fanatic since 1999. Some books that have influenced the website include Friendship with God, The Purpose Driven Life, The Power of Now, A New Earth, and Creative Visualization.
My passion for beauty started at a very young age. Though primarily driven by personal struggles with fine curly hair and combination skin, my beauty expertise grew over the years from devouring numerous beauty publications and trying mounds of products. After wasting piles of money testing top of the line products, I've learned that expensive beauty products aren’t necessarily better products.
Making a commitment to realize your beauty inside and out is a choice each and every moment. I believe strongly that we all have an innate power to create fulfilling lives. I vow to accept nothing less for those who wish to join me on that journey!