Fly High, Freebird

How do you act around your parents, your boss, your friends, your spouse, your siblings, casual acquaintances, and even co-workers?

Does who you are depend upon who you are with?

How often are you acting a prescribed role to meet the expectations of others?

How much time do you spend just being who you are?

From birth, we are asked to play different roles in familial life ~ son/daughter, niece/nephew, brother/sister, aunt/uncle, mother/father, husband/wife.

We also have roles to play in school, and on the job, and with our friends.

One reason we play so many parts is that we care about what others think of us.  We are concerned about our reputation with others.  Of course, we have as many reputations as we have acquaintances, and none of those reputations is accurate.

Everyone we meet forms an impression of us ~ often based on stereotypical information about our gender, our age, our profession, or our religious beliefs.  The impressions others hold of us are, of necessity, based on incomplete information.

No one can completely understand another human being.  We see the world behind our eyes, based on the life experiences we have had.

The world behind our eyes is not open for others to view.

When we go along . . . to get along  . . . we tend to lose ourselves in the process.  We become fragmented by all of our separate selves.  We emulate others.  We assimilate ourselves into the prevailing culture.  It gets harder to see who we really are because others have shaped, molded, and transformed us into what they want us to be.

I’m convinced that the happiest people on the planet are the ones who go to bed at night and fall asleep thinking, “Who I Am Is Who I Want to Be.”

That requires freeing ourselves from self-defeating thoughts and prescribed roles that retard our efforts to become  our best selves.  When we worry less about Ego’s concerns about fitting in, and focus more on the Spirit within, we free ourselves to be who we were always meant to be.

We begin to see that if we surround ourselves with giants, we grow.

And if we live among small people, we shrink.  For an insight-filled post on this topic:  Spend Time With Giants (T4D)

Accept that no one else can ever truly understand you and your unique point of view.  Focus on understanding yourself.

When you know who you are, you will see what you want out of life.

Fly High, Freebird.

Quote:  Attitude, not aptitude, determines altitude.

No rules.  Just write!

Artwork by Maitte Van Arsdel ~ available at Island Gallery West.