The Desert of Arizona
Clear 34 Degrees – 6:09 a.m.
As far as we know, Voltaire said: “To learn who rules over you, simply find out who you are not allowed to criticize.”
You can think about that for a few minutes and figure out who those individuals are in your world.
But there’s another force similar to this that most of us deal with on a daily basis.
Whose permission (or recognition) are you waiting for before you accept and acknowledge the value you bring to others?
For some, it’s an institution of higher learning. Certainly, without that college degree, you can’t possibly be valuable, right? Certainly you can’t until they say you can right?
For others, it’s the validation of the people they serve that is in short supply. Certainly, without a horde of raving fans out there already giving their pre-approval to you, there’s no way you could move forward, right?
Still others are waiting for that certifier of another kind. It comes from a course, it comes from an expert, it comes from the “governing body” you’ve been trained to believe knows something YOU don’t. At some point, however, those “certifiers” weren’t certifiers. And when you realize that they themselves aren’t “certified” it kind of blows the whole charade wide open.
But just because you can understand, on a logical level, that you don’t need “permission,” or validation, or certification, that doesn’t mean you can yet FEEL IT in your core.
How do you deal with that?
You deal with it by acting in spite of it. And then watching, slowly, over time, as you provide that PROOF you need for yourself.
So I might append Voltaire’s quote to something like this:
“To know what rules over you, just ask yourself for what or for whom you are waiting before you actually go out and start helping people improve their lives?”
Answer that, and then look at it long enough and you’ll eventually see it for what it is. You’ll see it’s only an illusion you use to protect yourself from your power to change the world…one human being at a time.
And the first human you get to change is YOU.