I'm invaluable to the world, yet extremely undervalued - what am I?
The Fulfillment Trap
Fulfillment, the thing that people are constantly going after (consciously or unconsciously). What is fulfillment? My idea of true fulfillment is “The feeling of deep satisfaction, contentment, and wholeness.” . The irony is that we want fulfillment, yet we are the ones that prevent ourselves from having it - fulfillment is in the place where no one looks.
The unfortunate trap that most people fall or have fallen into (including myself) is confusing true (deep) fulfillment with false (superficial) fulfillment. False fulfillment doesn’t last and comes from outside of us, its an illusion we create in our minds - close enough to motivate, but always out of reach. “I can’t wait for the weekend” then the weekend comes and more often than not they still aren’t satisfied so they have something else to look forward to.
The Unconscious Chase
Many of us go through life always wanting something more than what we have now, never satisfied or truly fulfilled, always chasing something outside of us to bring this false fulfillment. What do we chase? Anything that we perceive to be better than our present circumstances (the weekend, more money, a bigger house, a nicer car, better clothes, bigger tv, vacations, a relationship or a better relationship etc.).
The most unfortunate part about it is that most of us are totally unaware that we do this. It’s our emotions that control us and cause us to pursue this chase, buying things we don’t need, eating when we aren’t hungry, following the crowd instead of listening to our own intuition. In my opinion, the major causes of this are fear, greed, and lack of fulfillment - luckily we can overcome these things.
True Fulfillment, where do we start?
As I mentioned above, true fulfillment is in the place where no one looks. This is because we think too much, we try too hard to get it and so never have it. Fulfillment and inner peace is beyond thought it’s within us in the present moment. So, this means we need to go within to find the fulfillment. Self Discovery and self realization are the first steps to true fulfillment. How much time do we spend sitting with ourselves, alone asking ourselves questions, getting to know ourselves on the deepest level we can? If someone asked you who you are, would you be able to answer?
“Nature doesn’t hurry, yet everything is accomplished.” – Lao Tzu
Self discovery and self realization are undervalued because society has put emphasis on valuing tangible things in life (“success”, legacy, money, material items etc.) and we can’t tangibly see how self discovery and self realization will bring fulfillment or tangible “success”. We live in a rat race society that has made us believe that we always need to be working, doing something, if we don’t have something to do, we are “lazy”. To most, the thought of being by yourself and reflecting is humorous because to them it sounds like a waste of time. They have so much work to do, money to make, more important tasks to take care of, without realizing that it’s all things that they have created with their own minds. But life is full of paradoxes, and this is one: Less is more. Slow down, take time to reflect and get to know yourself on a deeper level, you’ll be surprised at the profound effects this will have on your life and the lives of those around you.
The intangible, creates the tangible.
At this point in time I think we can all agree that our minds are extremely powerful. Our perceptions create our reality. How? Our perceptions bring about thoughts, which create emotions within us, causing us to make certain choices, which create the circumstances in our lives. The question is, how aware are you of your thoughts throughout the day? Why do we do the things we do each day? Why do we have the thoughts we have? What creates our perceptions of the world? Are there thoughts that prevent us from feeling positive emotions? Self discovery, and self realization through reflection brings awareness to our usually unconscious thought patterns. Through this awareness we can begin to change our thought patterns which will change our tangible reality. The biggest thing that holds us back in life is fear (intangible feeling created by thoughts about the future), imagine what your life would look like if fear didn’t exist.
Fulfill yourself & impact the world
Self discovery and self realization is an ongoing journey that will allow you to not only live your most fulfilling life, but also your most impactful life. When we take the time to reflect, go deep within, and ask questions to get to know ourselves we are better equipped to understand why we’ve had the attitudes, beliefs, and perceptions we’ve had which have manifested our current realities. Self discovery and realization also help us get to know our unique passions, gifts, strengths, weaknesses, and values which are key in living your most fulfilling life.
I believe we all have unique gifts and passions. I believe our passions are matched/aligned with those gifts. Our unique gifts are to fulfill the world, our passions are to fulfill us. I believe there are several of ways of bringing our passions and gifts to the world, not just one “job”. I believe it is our purpose on earth to get to know ourselves and raise our consciousness through reflection and awareness to see our gifts, realize our passions, and overcome past conditioning (fear, doubt, greed, cynicism, ego). Because if we can do the inner work to know our true selves, we can bring our gifts to the world through our passions causing the world to blossom and prosper.
It is when a person is doing something where their passion and gifts are in alignment with their work that “greatness” flows out of them. We’ve seen it with the greatest artists, writers, actors, public figures. Often these people are looked up to because of the great work they do and the type of person they seem to be. The truth is that this greatness is in every person, we just need to discover it in ourselves and find work that aligns our passions and our gifts.
In the end it’s what we are on the inside that creates our external reality, to transform your external world, you need to transform your inner world. You can only begin to do that by becoming conscious of who you really are. Awareness is the first step to change.
A message to you and me,
David