Have you ever been in a room full of people and still felt alone? Have you ever been in the most overwhelmingly beautiful place and still felt uninspired? Have you ever had the "job you have always wanted" and yet felt disenchanted...been with the "perfect mate" and still been left wanting...acquired and amassed possessions that never seemed to slake your appetite? Chances are you have experienced at least one of these scenarios because you're human, and have probably been just as confused, discouraged and frustrated as the rest of us.
My most recent encounter with this thrilling reconciliation occurred on my latest road trip. I was travelling the country for work and fun and decided that it'd be a perfect opportunity to get some real work done on my book. During one of the legs, I found myself cached comfortably at my father's lakeside cabin in the mountains of Colorado. There I was alone for a week with no distractions, in an exquisite environment with nothing but time on my hands. Want to know how much work got done on the book? ZERO. This situation threw into sharp relief a concept I had been mulling over for years...one that I finally "GOT". And that is to say, you can place yourself in the most desirable environment possible, custom design an experience so that everything seems "right" to produce a certain result, YET when your INTERNAL climate is out of alignment, no self-induced "perfect storm" of external components can create an authentic experience. You see, in my humble opinion, we do too much living from the "outside-in", looking for someone or something to shake loose or summon that which we want and need to feel, have, be.
It's no surprise that we find ourselves regularly disoriented in life, as we rely so heavily on external conditions as a barometer of our happiness and fulfillment. But let me ask you this: When things are "RIGHT" on the inside, how much does the external matter? Ever been so at peace that you could find beauty in the smallest and simplest of things? Ever had a friend or lover who you could just "BE" with, even skipping rocks, and be truly happy? Ever had a job that paid diddly and had ridiculous hours, but you LOVED it? Ever had a moment when, despite the presence of hardship, you felt "GOOD". The bottom line is that while I am not suggesting that we completely discount the conditions surrounding us, I AM suggesting is that we start living from the INSIDE-OUT. We can change the external scenery all we want to in life, but the internal scenery will follow us on every adventure. Invest more time and energy on what you've got going on INSIDE...you won't regret it.
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