20 SEPTEMBER 2024 WorldWide Drilling Resource® or sad. Oh, but I was allowed to be funny. I quickly learned love came with a price tag: achievement. If I wanted Mother’s love and attention, I had to earn it. I recall during my first year in school breaking down in tears when I couldn’t answer a question or solve a problem on a test. I grew up learning that love was conditional. Whether it was a blue ribbon for winning the hundred-yard dash, or becoming an Eagle Scout, every scrap of approbation I received garnered a moment of precious loving attention and motivated me to strive for more. She was also manipulative and lacked boundaries. She would frequently start crying abruptly and wail, “Nobody loves me!” which was my cue to rush over and assure her I loved her. This led me to develop a rescuer persona; I didn’t know how to set boundaries with the people in my life. Over time, I slowly came to understand I needed to be true to myself. It was never a complete revelation, but was triggered incrementally by specific events. As I’ve written before in this space, I played high school football not because I enjoyed the game, but because I wanted to get girls interested in me. The result was a severe injury which almost cost me a leg. It was a painful lesson I only partially learned because I repeatedly pursued jobs, relationships, even leisure activities for the wrong reasons. Among those was abandoning my lifelong dream of being a fiction writer when I agreed to become a partner in my ex-wife’s business - a job I truly hated, that no amount of hard work and diligence could overcome (see my previous article: I was a Repeat Offender at Giving Up My Power in the May 2024 WWDR). Then two years ago, a friend of my mother’s helped me confirm the facts of my origin (see my previous article: My Parents Were Married, but I was a Bastard by Law in the August 2023 WWDR); I had an epiphany when she said to me, “I believe everyone should know the truth so that they can live their most authentic life.” Those words really stuck with me because I never thought of them together like that. I have written about being true to yourself; and I’ve written about being authentic, but for the longest time I didn’t realize I was not living an authentic life. We are so indoctrinated, propagandized, and socialized that we don’t know who we truly are. Each of us is born authentic, but as we grow up, there are constant social pressures on us to conform, fit in, or simply go along to get along to the point that our true selves are suppressed (along with our natural curiosity and creativity that can help us find our true selves). Now the trick is recovering who I truly am. This is where my shadow work (a method of uncovering and healing repressed emotional wounds from the past that hold us back in the present) can help me. Living authentically means all of our actions are guided by truth. Sometimes we know when we are living a lie. Other times we don’t because we are living behind a protective mask or persona. We may have created this protection in childhood to shield us from harm or trauma which no longer exists in adulthood, but our subconscious mind is still operating on the old childhood software. Alternatively, it may be the words of our parents, on whom our lives were once dependent, still hold authority over us via our inner dialogue. Finding these fears and limiting beliefs is when re-parenting your inner child can help uncover what is holding us back, and enable us to move forward authentically. Living authentically can also mean expanding your consciousness and living with purpose. Expanding consciousness is about removing emotional blocks and limiting beliefs so you can become aware of your authentic self, i.e., what you genuinely like, desire, enjoy, or care about - in brief - your purpose. Meditating, journaling, and living in the present are excellent ways to expand consciousness. A fulfilling life lived authentically in truth, means we are pursuing knowledge and activities which engage our natural talents and make us happy. A good method for finding your purpose is to follow your joy. When you feel joy, it is such a powerful emotion it speaks truth from the depths of your subconscious. Now that is what living an authentic life is about! Robert Robert is an innovation/change speaker, author, and consultant. He works with companies that want to be more competitive through innovation and with people who want to think more creatively. Contact him via e-mail to michele@worldwidedrillingresource.com Wilson Cont’d from page 19.
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy NDk4Mzk=