"How many cares one loses when one decides
not to be something but to be someone."
-- Gabrielle "Coco" Chanel
"We must be willing to get rid of the life we've planned,
so as to have the life that is waiting for us."
-- Joseph Campbell
It's interesting to me that when I first saw this quote by Coco Chanel, that it resonated with me very strongly. As I reflected on what it was speaking to me, I realized something about myself: that I am becoming someone.
Most all of my life, I've chased being something; i.e., successful, smart, having money, having authority, independence, and things like that. As I got some of all of that, I felt less fulfilled than I thought I would. I didn't expect that, but it continued to be the case.
Just in the last four years in particular, I can feel the change in me that I care little about being something, but find joy in becoming someone. I can also feel that deep down, that has always been the case, but the outer shell was ruling before.
I can look back and remember the day that it happened, or rather, when I opened the gate so to speak. It was a day of rushing emotion and joy together. As I allowed myself to get into this frame of mind, I began to see a whole other world from the one I was leading to that point. It was the world of dreams, possibilities, desire, purpose, fulfillment, love, and I could go on. Suffice to say that it was as if starting over, but with one huge difference: I could keep what I've learned already and go from that point thereby saving a great deal of time. It was freedom.
This freedom was not without a cost; however, it is a cost I would pay again and again without the slightest hesitation or thoughtful concern. I decided to "get rid of the life I planned so as to have the life that it waiting for me." I love how Albert Einstein put it: "Try not to become a man of success, but rather to become a man of value." As I've made this change over the last few years, I think I have become a man of value and this thrills me immensely. In this there is no final arrival, value is a relative term, so I will be constantly expanding and enhancing that value the rest of my life.
What's even more interesting as I reflect on this is that since I made that change, it seems impossible for me to go back where I was before that change. It's not even that I don't want to, which is true, it is that I don't think it is even possible. I find great joy in this.
"The Major Value In Life Is Not What You Get. The Major Value In Life Is What You Become." -- Jim Rohn
Spread Some Joy Today--by knowing that you can find joy any time you choose it; you can change any time you choose it; you can become more any time you choose it. We do not need to ask persmission from anyone. What joy is in that!
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