You get to choose who you are.
There will be times in life when others try to tell you who you are. Don’t listen.
There will be times in life when others try to reduce you to a label, adjective, or judgment. Don’t acquiesce.
There will be times when others will tell you to focus on consumption and competition. Don’t look.
Our social, cultural, economic, religious, political systems will try to stuff your uniquely shaped soul into a boring box. Don’t climb in.
You will be told there’s one way to be and one way to do. Don’t buy it.
You are a multifaceted, dynamic, ever-changing, complex, precious soul inside a human body.
You can spend a lifetime trying to deprogram and unlearn these lies. It’s easily to feel lost in a mountain of untruths searching for the shards of truth you once knew and have to rediscover. Though shedding the mold of identity you’ve been pressed into can feel awkward, it’s worth it.
Question the marketing machines that tell you, you are only worthy of love if you have a certain body type, skin tone, or sexual orientation.
Challenge the status quo that tells you, you are only successful when your bank account has a certain number of zeros, you spend the winter in a mountain chalet, you race through town in a supercar, your passport has multiple stamps per page, or your social calendar is bursting.
Discard the fearful small-minded judgments, limitations, expectations, and obligations that have been layered on you and are no longer serving you.
You cannot tune into your soul if you’re flooded with the expectations of others.
You cannot live your great life if you are too busy living the life other people told you to live.
You free yourself to soulfully design a life you love when adventure into living with personal authority, consciousness, and love.
Photo credit: Stefan Makwana captured the moment.