7 Keys to Success and Fulfillment ~ Part 2

By Willard Barth

The second key we will explore is called “Being Authentic”. I was having a discussion with a dear friend recently about the power of “authenticity” and how it impacts every area of our lives. He was sharing how he was so frustrated with the way that people were being dishonest with him, and that he was finding that so many people who were coming to him for help would not keep their commitments.

I shared with him something I had heard recently that really affected me. I told him that I didn’t believe that these people were intentionally trying to mislead him, or that they intended to break their commitments. But that because they were not being authentic with themselves, about who they are, and who they desire to become, that they were so busy trying to live up to unrealistic expectations, that they were telling him what they thought he wanted to hear, and then not being able to follow through.

You see, I believe that many people live in a state of what we call “quiet desperation”. We have been taught all our lives who and what we “should be” based on other people’s perceptions of the world, and their expectations for us. Yet, inside we have a very specific and unique gift that we have come to share with the world. There is only one you… and you are here for a very specific purpose. Yet, most of us spend our lives trying to be someone else. We see someone we respect or admire, and spend our lives trying to be them. Or we believe what well meaning family, friends, teachers tell us and do our best to live as they want us to.

People who are successful and fulfilled recognize that their calling is their own. That they need to “embrace their duality” of what the world expects of them, and what their special abilities are, and create something unique and authentic. You see, when you embrace that duality, you step into a place of creation. By being “authentic” you take all the experiences that have been shared with you externally, and mix them with what your “internal compass” gives you, and when you do this, you are living “on purpose”

Part 3 Coming on Saturday