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“The thing that is really hard, and really amazing, is giving up on being perfect and beginning the work of becoming yourself.”~Anna Quindlen
“I’m not actually happy,” I heard myself saying.
They were words I hadn’t yet admitted to myself, but I found myself sharing with a friend and mentor several years ago.
At the time, I was deeply identified with living a happy life. I was also deeply identified with the views of what you might call a cult, something I’ll explain more in a moment.
I was always working on bettering myself, and I devoted my life to living with purpose. The sentiment I shared with my mentor didn’t fit with the life I thought I had created, and it certainly didn’t fit with the notion of being on the leading edge of consciousness and culture, my organization’s motto.
He listened without judgment, and then he said this:
“This is your life and your spiritual path. It can be anything you want it to be, but it should be joyful.”
In that moment I felt liberated, and I realized that I had unconsciously bound myself to a life my mind had created.
I thought all of my hard work and dedication would bring me to some final place of happiness and didn’t realize that happiness is not a future goal to attain. It’s a relat…