Different life experiences

You like to believe that everything you do comes from an inner desire to do things right, a desire based on a set of principles. What if you’re wrong? What if your actions spur from your ego, and all you are after is validation?

Every little thing you do and every little thought you have, are all about you. The excuses you use to justify how you live, are there to help you accept the consequences of the choices you’ve made, and of the ones you are making.

Like you justify your actions, so does everybody else. That is why their behavior is not about you, but rather about them and the reasons they use to justify the choices they are making. Most external conflicts between people arise from the fact that we don’t all speak the same language.

What you do and say has a certain meaning for you, but it might not have the same meaning for the person next to you. This happens not because you are against one another, but because you understand the same situation differently.

This different understanding comes from the fact that you had different life experiences, and your life experiences influence the way you see the world. In short, all that a person does and says is about that certain person, and that is why it should not be taken personally by anybody else.

A person’s behavior is only an echo of the life lived to this present moment, and it has nothing to do with anybody else, even when it might seem so.

What does a man truly have in this world? Only his word and the actions he puts behind them. These need to always be aligned with each other. When you talk about doing something, about being a certain way, that should be binding. It should be a promise that you will follow through on your words.

Unfortunately, in the real world, things rarely look like this. People are so used to saying one thing and doing another, that it has become difficult to identify what is true about them. Most people are so insecure about who they are that they are investing a lot of time and effort into convincing the world that they are a certain way, only to later find out that is not what they wanted.

When you try to project into the world an image of who you believe you need to be, after a certain time it becomes tiring. The energy needed to maintain the mask will soon outweigh the perceived benefits. A bigger risk is that if worn for a long time, the mask can make you forget who you are.

The good news is that is never too late to stop wearing a mask. You can always learn to be yourself again. All that you need to do is to align your thoughts, words and actions. When these three align, nothing can stay in your way.

To show your true self to the world is frightening because there is no guarantee that the world will accept you. It’s not the world that needs to accept you. The only acceptance you need is yours. To make this task easier you will need to trust yourself, and this happens when your words and actions are the same.