From my forthcoming book, “How We Choose To Show Up”
Years of research prove a sad finding. Many of us live mostly by default. We show up with a limited understanding of ourselves, and superficial readiness to make the most of “right now”.[1] In a nutshell, what Socrates calls the “examined life” has become scarce.
We simply haven’t taken the time to discover the overarching patterns that define us. Much of our lives follow blueprints passed from elders in far lands.
These hereditary blueprints shape our personal puzzle pieces. Indents of diligence, curiosity, compassion, flexibility, honesty and the rest of who we are start in our DNA and our childhood homes. These predispositions and early learnings seduce us to interact in certain ways.
We fit with the familiar. It breeds preference.
But familiarity is often not happiness. The flipside of our positive traits are often unhealthy. Guilt, victimhood, low self-esteem, thin communication. When we don’t see them, we can’t make conscious choices about how to interact. Then our silent patterns — our true partners — have already written our next chapter. Perhaps they’ve written all our chapters.
