“‘I never hit publish unless I’m afraid of what people will think of me.”
Ever take a look at your life and wonder how a parallel version of yourself would live it?
The person you could be.
A version of you who says exactly what they mean. A version of you who pursues their creative endeavors without limit. A version of you who does not hesitate to reach for what they truly want.
Do you ever compare the paths of this version and the one you’re on? What would your life look like if you never held back?
A few years ago, I started a journey to try to truly merge those two versions of myself: the person I am and the person I could be.
From that point, life got better, messier, and more real than I ever could’ve imagined.
I’m still on that journey. Though I’ve made so much progress, I am an endless work-in-progress. This blog, Stories Awakened, is about my ongoing journey.
What I discovered a few years ago is that it all comes back to core values: the things in life that truly mean the most to you. When you discover those, you discover the essence of who you are.
With that self-awareness, you can start to align your life as much as possible with those values.
And, as far as I can tell, that is the path to becoming the truest version of who you are and living a fulfilling life.
This blog is dedicated to the expression of my own core values, especially through writing and the exploration of dreams. I also focus on tools that can help us get closer to living our core values, such as:
- Growth mindset: Striving to learn from all your experiences, positive or negative
- EQ: ‘The biggest communication problem is we do not listen to understand. We listen to reply.’ -Stephen R. Covey
- Mental Agility: the ability to adapt your mind to new circumstances or information
- Personality Psychology: a branch of psychology focused on how personality develops as well as how it influences the way we think and behave.
As I share about my own journey, I’m going to be as raw and real as I can be here, even when it’s challenging, embarrassing, or overwhelming.
More and more, I’ve realized the real person that we are is infinitely better than any idea of a person we can invent. The only time we are less than ourselves is when we try to be someone we’re not.
Real is better than perfect.
“When I felt embarrassed to be talking about myself, I clung to Jung’s idea that, ironically, the more intensely individual a person’s thoughts are, the more uniquely applicable to him or her, the more they will have meaning for other people.
‘That which is most personal is most common,’ he said. Meaning, that if there’s any justification for telling personal stories, it’s that every person, every selfish little clod of ailments and grievances—including you, including me—contains within their self the entire human condition.”