“Finally Facing Myself”

There is a moment on the path of genuine self-discovery that is both terrifying and profoundly liberating. It is the moment when you stop looking for the source of your problems in the people around you, in the circumstances of your life, in bad luck or bad timing — and you finally turn the lens inward. “It is me. It has always been me. My mind is what has been doing this all along.” That recognition is not a defeat. It is the beginning of everything.

The Moment of Recognition

The relief comes at finally facing yourself. It is indescribable what you start to feel like when you are willing to start addressing yourself. The answers begin to come about why you do what you do, who you are when you are at your worst. It was intimidating — but at the same time, it was relieving. Indescribable: “That is it. That is what has been doing me all my life. I have been doing myself. The whole time. It is my mind. It is in me. It is not you.”

And then comes the next wave: “What am I going to do about that? You are telling me not to go to me — but how do I not go to me? I have been going to me so long. And you are telling me I am the problem?” So now the problem shifts. But at least it begins embarking on a solution. At least there is a recognition that a solution exists.

It does not have to be this way. You do not have to do this anymore — one day at a time.

From Compulsion to Choice

Not only do you not have to do it anymore — but as you get on and move on in this life, you are going to begin to do things differently because you want to. You are going to realize that you do not have to be bludgeoned and beaten into humility. It could come from voluntarily reaching for it. And this will be the great turning point in your life, in your day, in the moment you are in: when you try to do the right thing because it feels right, rather than doing the right thing because you have to.

That is a great turning point. It happens in a moment. It happens in a day. It happens in a Way of Life. You start to do what is right because what it is producing is so good that you would not want anything else.

When I do the right thing, right things happen. And when I do the wrong thing, wrong things happen.

Learning the Math of Living

This is learning the math of life. Debits and credits. Negative and negative, positive and positive — and what they produce. It is pretty simple: if you spend more than you make, you are in debt. The same is true in a Way of Life. If you try to perform where you are not at — if you try to be something you have not yet become — you are going to get into a hole. But if you are honest about where you are at, there are people who can offer you the opportunity to find out who you are and why you do what you do, so you can become what you have always wanted to be.

You cannot be something other than what you are until you find out exactly who you are. That is exactly what this Way of Life is about. Not arriving at perfection — but arriving at honesty. And from honesty, growth becomes possible in ways that effort alone never could produce.