"Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma - which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of other's opinions drown out your own inner voice. And, most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary."
Steve Jobs, CEO Apple Computer, Pixar Animation Stanford University Commencement Address June, 2005
Our yearnings are pretty much the same – even if what fulfills them is different. Each of us yearns to be successful and happier. Sounds right, doesn’t it? But, here’s the snag, many of us want increased success and happiness as long as we don’t have to change very much or to tolerate too much discomfort to achieve our desire. We want things to be better; we just don’t relish the price we may have to pay to get there.
While you earnestly want to experience more success, caring, self-worth or
self-confidence, you also want to leapfrog over the messiness and awkwardness of creating something new in your life. You want "it, they and them", to shape up and change – but not you.
So, before we move on, I want to be really honest with you. To create the work, career, life and relationships you want, it’s you who must change first.
While this is more than possible, it is not for the faint-hearted, the self-absorbed or the self-righteous. Changing is a humbling experience. It is not all skyrockets in flight, it’s often shoveling, well - you know what I mean.
If you want your work and life to be more fulfilling, more exciting, more lucrative, and more meaningful then you must work to release your ways of being that get in the way of your success. You must become more response-able in your relationships with family, friends, work colleagues, customers and others.
This book is about finding your Self. It is about discovering who you are and can become when you face your fears, fight the negative self-talk; open to not knowing and find your courage to go for the life you really crave.
Finding meaning only happens when we for compassion, gratitude, generosity,integrity and openness to learning from others. We also must become willing to consider the greater good over personal aggrandizement. Commit to discovering "what's in it for all of us” and you can reap the rewards of the wonderful things that are in it for you.
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