Edward E. Wilson

Your life isn’t what happens to you, it is what you do. What happens to you are just your circumstances, anyone could have faced them. It is what you do in the face of those circumstances that makes it your life. You get to stamp yourself on the moments you are given and claim them. But it’s a responsibility as well. Who are you telling the world you are?

Are you broadcasting your largeness of spirit, your ability to accept whatever you are given, face it with curiosity and compassion, and courageously embody your highest values in action? If not, why not? This is the real challenge of your life, to bring your authentic best to any given moment. As Laozi says, who conquers others is strong, who conquers themselves is mighty.

You can start by fully accepting those things in yourself that you’ve let prevent you from embodying your best self. Your shame. Your fear. Your uncertainty. Start with whichever comes up for you, explore it with curiosity for how it works for you, why it is triggered, and what it is telling you. Face it with compassion for the person experiencing it, compassion for the person who learned it, and compassion for the people connected to it.

Now reflect on your values, on how your best self would be in the world. Accepting that what you are experiencing, feelings and all, can not be wished away, how would your best you act? How would that best you stand, move, breathe, look, and speak? Now let as much of that best you into the world as you can. This is your gift, give it as freely as you can.

On this battlefield it is the tiniest victories that count most, so celebrate any time you let a little more of your authentic best into the world.