3. You cannot be authentic unless you are persistent. Persistence unlocks the key to the universe. There is nothing more persistent than the infinity of the universe. Regardless of what happens, the earth keeps moving around the sun – what is more persistent than that?
· Nothing is more important that stick-to-itness. What I call discipline. Everybody quits. Don’t be one of those people. Staying with the commitment to become more awake and aware is a lifetime commitment that never ends.
· I had a client who had an ah–ha moment when she realized she was fully in this process of self-discovery. "I just realized she said, I can never go back to the way I was before.” Once you start to stay awake you get more used to being conscious then you did to being asleep.
· How many times have you made a plan to do something and given up because you lost interest midway through or it had become too hard?
· No one stays pumped up all the time. That’s the reason people have a plan – not because they need it to feel good but it’s what they will need when they’re not feeling so good. Everyone goes through ups and downs. The difference between those who succeed and those who fail is persistence, discipline; following the plan you laid out (when you did feel good, by the way).
· I got an email from one of my clients. We had just had a discussion on why, even though he dislikes his job today, he should not quit. This is the email I got from him:
“Ok, I just want to make sure that I understand this correctly. It’s not the nature of what I’m doing that’s the problem. I’m just blaming that for my lack of commitment and follow-thru. Granted, I get to a point where I “lose interest” and have made some progress, but not nearly as much as I could’ve (and will) make if I confront the desire to just give up and go home and find another job directly and neither act on it nor suppress it. Hmmm… that wasn’t very concise. How about this… Whenever I feel like I felt today, so what? Of course I’m going to feel that way no matter what I do because that’s where I’m at in terms of my follow-thru with a job. And so, to overcome that, I’m going to have to feel those feelings but not let them move me one way or the other.
In essence, it’s those feelings of giving up that when dealt with properly, lead to success. And up to this point, I’ve been blaming the nature of my job for my lack of follow-thru rather than accepting responsibility for that myself.
Now, moving forward, it may be the same habits that I'll be dealing with, but at least now I know how to engage them and why. There will be no confusion, and I can finally step back and dissolve this nasty habit of quitting when I lose interest. And I can do that with the job I have now."
· Persistence allows us to learn about ourselves. We directly experience all the stuck places we are and consciously make a choice to not allow them to create our world.
· And the reason we do not quit is because we understand that the only thing holding us back is ourselves.
· Unless you are willing to keep moving forward, no matter what, you can never be authentic. How can you know who you really are if you always quit when things get difficult or uncomfortable? Working your way through those difficult and uncomfortable places, you end up something more than when you began. You simply are not the same person. And you are surely more authentic.
4. Living in the present moment – there is nothing more important that this. People talk about this all the time but what does “living in the present moment” really mean. Being present is the exact same as being conscious and the same as true authenticity. This is what being alive is all about. It is not about the past or future but about this moment only.
· You can only feel joy in the present moment. Even when you are remembering joy in the past, you are feeing it in the present moment.
· If you are in the past or the future, you are in your head, and can’t feel anything. The intellect can never substitute for the heart. Regardless of how clever the mind is, - if you stay up in your head - you are always one step away from the action.
· Resisting “what is” is the cause of all suffering. Living in the present moment means surrendering to that moment – totally being present, feeling yourself in your body, being awake and aware.
· Most people want to be some place other then where they are at. The key to authenticity is to know that you are always in the right place at the right time and to not want to be anywhere else.
· Surrendering to the moment allows you to be truly who you are – without excuses or checking out.
· The more you surrender to “what is” the more authentic you will be.
Remember, authenticity is a lifetime process that becomes more and more refined. The deeper you understand your Self, the deeper you understand the secrets of the universe, and the more conscious you become.
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