Last week, I attended a webinar where I was challenged to tell myself the truth. To be honest about what I believe are shortcomings on my part. The reason behind this exercise was to reveal to ourselves that these beliefs do not come from the outside of us, they are created within us.
This is true, our beliefs about our shortcomings can be debilitating. They take over the decision-making process by constantly blocking any innovation — by way of negative inner voices, creating distractions to stay away from our true inner-self, and other self-destructive actions that take us further from our purpose. The thing is these beliefs are just that, a belief. They are not truths; they are a mask we wear. Before I get ahead of myself, let me share my experience with this notion to give you some context.
I know I’m a good writer. I know I can build a text from a minimum of information to make it complete and interesting. But still, I hold back because a voice in my head keeps saying: “Why do you bother? Who’s going to want to read what you write? All you can do is tell a story; you don’t have any qualifications to share any meaningful insight.” I’ll stop there, but that voice has had a strong influence on my decision-making — until last year, more on that later. This voice made me wear a mask that was made of deceit and negativity. When asked, I would say: “Oh! I only write adventures to distract people.” Or: “I’m happy if someone enjoys my stories.” Even though there is some truth in those comments, whatever excuse I used to keep myself from revealing my true purpose was always bathed in the one big question my inner voice kept asking: “Why do you even try?”
I’ll tell you what I told my inner voice. Because I know I have a unique point of view on a wide variety of subjects, and that someone — more than one person actually — needs to hear it. I know I can infuse the fiction I write with philosophical and spiritual insight that will bring a person to want to learn and grow. There are many who, like me, have had life-changing experiences from reading a fiction book. I want to emulate some of my heroes: John Steinbeck, Alexandre Dumas, William Gibson, Haruki Murakami, to name a few, and bring my readers to look at life with a new lens when they finish one of my books.
During the webinar, I realized I still hide behind the “I just write fun fiction” mask. That ends today, with this blog. I write fun fiction, yes. But it is infused with notions that are at the core of my personal belief system that is mixed in with elements that challenge that same belief system. I firmly hold true to the notion that for progress to happen, change needs to occur, and change always creates inconvenience, even when it’s for the better.
I invite anyone who reads this to take a moment to meditate on what you believe is a shortcoming on your part and challenge yourself to see past it. I can’t say what you will find or how you will deal with it, we are all unique. But I can say it will be one of the most liberating experiences of your life.
That’s it for now, we’ll talk soon. Take care everyone.
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