It occurred to me last night that there are a lot of people in my life making progress on their journeys through life. It's something that is fascinating to me because I've been doing the same thing the last year or so, and it's astounding how there are so many good stories with every day people you know.
One friend is being more assertive and looking out for herself and really understanding what makes her happy in life, regardless of the cost. That's very brave. Another friend is seeing the opportunities for her career and taking them, slowly building confidence in her abilities and her decisions. Yet another person is working the first real job of her life, and doing it 60 hours a week, loving it. And then one more is making the transition to a totally new era in her life.
The recurring theme in this, and with my own journey, is that people who are successful, happy and fit for the world, are constantly evolving, learning and doing things that are hard. The core things that enable success and happiness are self-respect and courage. I think we're brought up to believe that these are very selfish things, and being selfish makes you a bad person. That's total bullshit.
In fact, it's so bullshitish that I can say without question that the people who are most able to look out for themselves and achieve happiness internally first, are the people who are most generous and have the most generally positive effect on others. When you provide for yourself, something that's really hard, then providing for others is so easy. Sure, you might put some people off by putting yourself first, but do those people need so much of you that they need you to feel right themselves? If they can't respect what you need, how can they really respect themselves?
The journey can be endlessly exciting when you start it with yourself. The external things will always fall into place with that solid foundation of self-respect and courage to do what's right for you, first.
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