This life is mine alone. So I have stopped asking people for directions to places they’ve never been. – Glennon Doyle

Every day another dig, another pick, another way we kick ourselves. It seems we are always in relentless pursuit of that ever-illusive something that will make everything else in our lives right, and until we get there nothing is ever good enough. This leaves us feeling less than, fragile, unsure of ourselves. The truth is we already have what we’ve been looking for, we’ve just been looking in the wrong place. We’ve been obsessed with what’s outside of us when really we should be looking inside.

There’s no doubt it’s hard to sort out what is so close to us and make sense of it. It may seem the someone who holds all the answers to what we’ve been searching for is out there, but in the end it’s always within us. It always has been. We already have all the answers we keep looking for out there. The way to tap into those answers is through stillness, silence, and trusting ourselves. Someone else may already be living the life we’d like to be living but there is no substitute for finding our own way in our own time. And although another can show us the jumping off point the truth that’s inside is for us alone to unearth.

It’s also not about how much knowledge we have or how many degrees we’ve collected but rather what we do with the knowledge we already possess. We don’t need another class, another lecture, or another workshop, but we absolutely do need to live what we know, be open to what is new or next or needed, and honor the answers found deep within. There is no doubt that it’s easier to stay small, to go unnoticed, and to decline the possibility we already have all we need. Often we just don’t believe the answers we are looking for can be that simple or that accessible. Somehow it’s easier to get lost in the complications and endless searching and incredibly difficult to slow down, look within, and trust our own voice.

But here’s the absolute truth: we are not less than anyone else, we are more than enough. Each one of us. We all carry our own light in our own way, but it is up to each of us to see what that is and then live it. Then we can honor the truth of who we are and share what we’ve found.

So here’s my question for you, where have you left yourself behind? Where do you ignore or abandon yourself? Where do you beat yourself up for no reason at all? Ask yourself this, would you treat your friends the way you treat yourself? And what would it take for you to let yourself off the hook of unobtainable perfection or incessant comparison and just live a life you love?

It may sound complicated and daunting, but it’s not. Just look inside, you’ll find exactly what you’ve been searching for.

kb