I’ve written about living as if life is happening “to you,” or “by you,” and the key difference that entails.
But there is still another way.
And that is to feel that life is created “through you.”
When we think that life is created by us, we see the power that we have, but we tend to take the perspective of an individual, who has individual wants.
We can get really good at creating lots of stuff this way. The jobs, the homes, the cars, the money.
But deep satisfaction tends to elude us.
Dan Pink wrote in “Drive: The Surprising Truth about What Motivates Us,” that the three things that we all need are autonomy, mastery, and purpose.
Purpose. A higher calling. A connection to something bigger than ourselves. Something meaningful. Something that will give back, will make the world better.
Some way to leave the world just a little better because of our efforts.
And those things only tend to come through us when our small self, with its petty, ego-driven wants, gets out of the way.
The shift from “by me” to “through me” is in many ways that shift from small self to bigger self. To the still small voice in each of us.
When you are in touch with your bigger self, what wants to come through you?
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