The Evolution of Self
October 24th, 2011 by dannym
“Every human has four endowments: self awareness, conscience, independent will and creative imagination. These give us the ultimate human freedom. The power to choose, to respond, to change.” – Stephen R. Covey
I was once a mess, an intelligent mess, but a mess none-the-less. Careless with responsibility and neglectful of my future, I perfected the art of living for the moment and paid no attention to the sordid path I was unfolding for myself.
That is until that future started to become my reality. Debt, depression, disillusion and despair became the four walls of entrapment I boxed myself into. Year after year, I traded places with my true self and lived into the life of a false version of self. I resisted growth, improvement, evolution.
Needless to say, this constant clash between my inherent values and the person I portrayed to the world, led to massive internal turmoil. My true self was violently pushing its way outward and was fighting valiantly to overcome the negative circumstances, which I had become surrounded by and accustomed to.
This, unknown to me, was the sign that an evolution was on the brink of occurring in my life and it eventually did.
Today, I have come to learn that life is a series of stages. Our lives are the result of past choices and our futures are molded by the decisions we consciously make today. The most relieving part is that no matter which stage you are on, there is another one waiting for you to step onto. So, ask yourself, which stage are you living on now? Are you happy and thriving at this current stage? If not, do you know where your stage exit is and the path to the next stage?
Change is the pen-stroke of progression or regression. It leads to evolution, which is the hammer-stroke of adaptation. As humans, we naturally adapt to our lives and circumstances over time. We can adapt to remain in our current circumstances or we can fight to evolve beyond them, thereby changing the stage of our life.
My internal self, with all of its inherent values and knowledge of my true self-worth fought and won.
I evolved. I experienced the evolution of self.
Now, I stand proud as a man on a mission. I am on the path to becoming a doctor, yet I work full-time, am co-owner of a growing business, and proudly about to sign my name to be part of the development team of a new-born, sport-wear distribution company.
Am I proud of this stage? Yes, I am!
I have written all of this to convey to you one point; the life you live today does not have to be the life you live tomorrow. You too are capable of the evolution of self.
As Dr. Covey noted, through self-awareness, conscience, independent will and creative imagination, you have been given the right to experience the ultimate human freedom.
You possess the power to choose, to respond, to change.
Step onto your next stage, today!
