How Do You Know What Your Best “You” Is?
How do you know what your best you is?
This is one of those paradoxes that are super-simple yet infinitely complex.
I am a firm believer in the notion of conscious reality creation. I am convinced that I am empowered to take my personal illusion of reality and shape it to best fit me.
There are a lot of challenges and obstacles along any given path, but rather than let life live me I want to live life. So I constantly put out there the idea of being the best you that you can be.
What IS the best you that you can be?
The you that is most genuine, content, finding satisfaction in your life choices, and being alive is the best you that you can be. It’s a version of yourself where you are mindful of your thoughts, feelings, and actions in the here-and-now, and intentionally acting upon that for your own good, and quite probably the good of those around you.
On the one hand, this can be incredibly simple and easy. But on the other hand, it is challenging for a number of reasons.
Shrinking from merit because of rejection
One of the oddest paradoxes of modern society is that there is an established “norm” of one stripe or another. For example, you are expected to go to school, then college, then get a job and raise a family, then retire somewhere warm. Any deviation from this norm (or any other example) is suspect.
Along the way you are encouraged to be creative, to think differently in order to come up with new ideas so as to best contribute to society at large. The education system was originally designed to help you grow. Yet on the other side, there is an expectation that you need to not grow too big, be mindful of selfishness and outshining anyone else.
There is something to be said for merit. It is a measure to see when someone stands out, and from there can be a leader. The problem is that someone along the way decided that this was too hurtful, so they started giving participation trophies. Mediocre was shown to also have merit.
One the one hand a lot of people came to believe that it was perfectly ok to just be ok. No need to push beyond that, you still can be rewarded. But then there has been a backlash against merit, and that in turn is impacting society in some pretty terrible ways.
I don’t know about you, but it utterly baffles me to watch people reject science, medicine, and provable fact with a sneer and self-righteous opinions. They berate and reject intellectuals…then wonder why things are coming apart.
My point is that you should not shrink from being your best because you might get rejected. Being your best doesn’t detract from anyone else and what they can do.
Being your best doesn’t impose on anyone else
One of the largest problems with the idea of being the best you that you can be is that there are some pretty lousy examples of “achievers” being presented to you. Business moguls hoarding money and convincing everyone that trickle-down economics works; politicians beholden to special interests and how they can be compensated and empowered; prosperity preachers disempowering the masses while amassing surreal wealth; a President who thinks nothing of telling outright lies and spouting his narcissistic greatness. Ergo, lots of these people at the “top” are really, really, awful.
Unless you intend to hurt someone, disempower them, take or withhold things from other people, you are a good person. Doing what you can to be your best doesn’t prevent anyone else from being THEIR best. Unlike the previous examples, I am pretty certain that if you are reading this then you have no intention of being a douchebag.
Being your best entails learning, growing, changing, and actively seeking ways and means to do this. For me, this means I read and listen to various books about conscious reality creation, manifestation, and ways to expand and change.
I am also actively working on being true to myself and not putting on a mask that I think will make me more beloved, acceptable, or what-have-you. Being your best doesn’t get in anyone else’s way or interfere with their doings. Nor should it.
Recognizing your best you
For many people, it is far easier to recognize when they are not their best. You are dissatisfied with your life in various ways, be it your job, home, relationships, location, and so on. Chances are you see a more idealized version of yourself beyond who you are in the now…but you may have no idea how to achieve it, or even if you can.
Then, just to rub a little salt into the wound, odds are you may not believe that you are worthy or deserving of being that best you that you could be.
First a foremost, of COURSE you are worthy and deserving of being the best you that you can be. You are not just living this life to merely survive, you are meant to thrive. So unless you intentionally hurt others to be your best, you are worthy and deserving of it.
Let’s acknowledge that you might cause some people to feel hurt by your personal advancement. You cannot control how others will feel, and unless your intent was to cause hurt it is what it is.
Your best you is when you feel empowered, light-hearted, excited by learning and growth and change. It involves taking actions through mindful awareness of what you are thinking and what and how you are feeling in the here-and-now to continue to evolve. Your best you is who you CAN be, and doing what you will to achieve that.
You will meet resistance both from within and without. It will be up to you to determine what to do in the face of this, and how best to move past and through it. That is part of the paradox of the simplicity and complexity of this entire idea.
Be present in the moment
Finally, it’s important to acknowledge this notion. You are not your past, nor can you be wholly focused on the future. In the now, in the present, you have all of the power to take intentional actions to be the best you that you can be.
Your best you is different from my best me. Yet you and I are both worthy and deserving of finding and BEING that person. Mindfulness is the key to influence and control of your thoughts and feelings and choosing and deciding on actions to be taken intentionally therein. When you are mindful you become aware in the moment, and that will let you see just who your best you can be.
Don’t be afraid to be amazing. The world needs more amazing people to look to.
Do you know what your best you looks like?
This is the four-hundred and sixth entry in my series. These weekly posts are ideas for, and my personal experiences with, walking along the path of life to consciously create reality. I share this journey as part of my desire to make a difference in this world along the way. I also desire to empower myself and my readers with conscious reality creation.
Thank you for joining me. Feel free to re-blog and share this.
The first year of Pathwalking, including some expanded ideas, is available here. My additional writing works, both fiction and non-fiction, are available here.
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