I became more creative. I started bringing more vulnerability into my writing. Not being afraid to showcase my emotions and voice my opinions, my writing became more authentic, helping people associate with it. Not to forget, it gave the wings of imagination and freed me from my self-imposed barriers.
When you are true to yourself, you are not afraid to cross any boundary. You dare to creatively express yourself, and in the process broaden your horizon as well as of the people who are influenced by your work. You look at your life and work from a very different perspective, and become more open-minded and less judgmental in your approach.
I took risks. I quit my cushy full-time job to start a consulting firm with a friend. I took risks, some paid-off, some backfired completely. But, I learnt that to keep moving in life, you just need to keep moving! And, you cannot keep your mistakes hidden under the carpet. You need to analyse them, learn from them and wear them on your chest like medals.
Keep challenging yourself and take risks in life, otherwise you will remain stagnant. When you are one with yourself and understand your true potential, you will be aware of how to leverage your skill sets in certain situations. This will also help you in taking risks and decisions that you previously thought was not possible to be implemented. And if you falter, remember it even took Thomas Edison a thousand attempts to invent the light bulb!
I stopped being perfect. Perfection is an illusion. As a human being, you only grow and develop. I learnt that perfection is also a form of approval we are seeking from the society (good grades, behaviour, appearance, etc.). Our success parameters are often linked to perfect results. The fallacy of perfection eats the reality of who you are.
Embrace your imperfections and learn to work around them, instead of running towards attaining a perfect self. The simple fact is, what you think is perfect might not be the ideal definition of perfection for others, and that’s when you get into the vicious cycle of wanting to fulfill people’s expectation. Be the person you are, accepting your flaws and weaknesses. Focus on developing yourself, rather than being perfect.
I embraced my failures. That’s another side-effect of aiming for perfection. You never want to fail. Ironically, we never teach our children how to fail, we are always edging them towards succeeding in life. But, what we forget is that there is only one spot at the top and not everyone reaches there. And, even that spot is not permanent. There might be someone better than you who may occupy that space someday.
You may face failure at many junctures in your lives. Sometimes you learn from them, while at other times you do not find any purpose behind them. As failure can lead to stress, you are often scared of failure, and remain unprepared to face adversities in life. However, if you want to go beyond failures, you need to embrace them rather than looking at them as obstacles. It is when you gracefully accept your failures, you are at peace with yourself to try again. Samuel Beckett’s words became my mantra, “Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better.”
When you are true to yourself, you no longer feel incomplete, you no longer feel any gap within yourself. And, when you become whole in yourself, you experience a magical moment that dissolves all your insecurities, irrationalities, and chaos in your life, and somewhere you find yourself admiring the many wonders of life.
As you learn to embrace your vulnerabilities, your follies and weaknesses, you become a more positive, peaceful, and most importantly, happy person. You start knowing and accepting yourself. You are aware about your strengths and weaknesses, passions and dislikes, limitations and skill sets, and this awareness help you in moving forward in your life accordingly. Finding out what defines you and what works for you, makes you whole in yourself.
However, being yourself is seen as a personal choice. You always have the choice to either be the person you really are or embody the projected self as dictated by the society. If you choose to be true to yourself, there will be no need to hide behind a mask. You will have the power to do whatever you want to do as per your convictions.
You need not worry about pleasing anyone else when you are being true to yourself. There is no need for living by someone else’s standards. You finally live by your own dictum, ‘I will live my life the way I want to by being true to myself.’
Over the years, I learnt that being yourself does not lead to being victorious or getting defeated, it is embracing yourself wholeheartedly, accepting your vulnerabilities and being ‘truly seen’.
If still in doubt, remember, even Superman is not perfect, he is also vulnerable to kryptonite!
A compulsive writer, a mad thinker, a marooned traveller, and an accidental photographer,
Asha Dey is also the Senior Editor of WisdomWinds. Follow her on Twitter @deyasha18.
#Buddha #Buddhism #Zen #Life #Lifestyle #wisdomwinds
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