LIFE HANDBOOK, PART 2

November 13, 2019 –

A life handbook helps to understand the PAST, live a better PRESENT, and plan for a better TOMORROW. Simple getting up in the morning and going to bed at night does not make for a joyful life.

More and more of us are on a quest to discover WHY we are WHO we are, and HOW we got there, and WHEN the critical events took place and WHERE. 

One thing rarely determined WHO you are. The real you is almost always hiding in plain sight. This handbook exercise helps recap the many things that influence you and enables you to get to know yourself. Find out how environment, entourage, education, and experiences (4Es) contribute to who you are and what you will become. Only then will you find the path to happiness. You need not know every influence in our life, just the right influences.

To discover who you are, you need to accept your strengths and weaknesses, and the positive influences and the negative influences. Your handbook is a great way to get in touch with who you are.

There is a Zen slogan, “The journey is the reward.” So, look for the threads of life that contributed to making you who you are. The threads include Self-esteem, regret, guilt, forgiveness, fear, lack of confidence, over expecting, procrastination depression, anxiety, career factors, the influence of people, to name a few threads.

Take paper and pen or computer and write the names of three people who, throughout your life, have positively influenced you. Then, name three people who, throughout your life that had a negative influence on your life. Next, name the qualities about them you remember most.

Next week’s post deals with the effect of education in your life.