Maybe you’ve been perturbed at someone who seems to know a lot more than you do. Yep, even today I felt the same way. And I know it’s not always just because of jealousy, but because the way they live their life makes you reflect on your own path.

“Is my way wrong? Am I missing something?” These were the kinds of questions I was asking myself.

Sometimes I worry about these things. I wonder if there might be something, just outside of my awareness, that if I was aware of it, it would make a huge difference in my life.

Then people come by who seem to have it all figured out, like they’ve found the thing, and yet, what they say doesn’t seem helpful to me at all. Frustrating!

The conclusion I’ve now come to is that the next step a person needs to take in their personal journey is unique to them. Maybe I don’t need what some knowing-seeming person seems to be talking about.

Doesn’t mean what others have to say is wrong. It could be right. Wrong could also be mixed in with the right. If you just take what people have to say at face value, you get the wrong and the right.

But that begs the question: How can people sound so confident, so sure of themselves, so knowing, and STILL be wrong? As I see it now, people have confidence in what works. Perhaps what someone says worked to get them through a barrier in their life. But in the scope of all barriers, even the ones they haven’t seen yet, it might be false! (See bottom of post)

And heck, even if what they say IS totally true, who knows if they can communicate it effectively? So I now realized that my own path is one step at a time – and that the way I take those steps may be completely different from anyone else.

And, truth is, I might come to a completely different conclusion tomorrow. What I’m writing here, however, solved my feelings of frustration and uneasiness that I felt today.

Maybe I’m wrong in some aspect of it, but I can be at peace with knowing I’ll find out when that falsehood becomes an issue. I can trust my sense of what’s true to guide me in the right direction when the time is right.

Applying this to Yourself

Is there an area of your life where you feel like people seem more confident than you, or blatantly try to tell you what to think, feel, do, or say, as if they know better than you do? Try out the exercise below, if so:

1. Quietly, by yourself, think of the issue. Remember how it makes you feel.
2. What are you uncertain of, which others seem so certain about?
3. Why are you uncertain of this? What is the truth of your feelings?
4. After reacquainting yourself with your feelings, remember that these are your feelings. No one else knows your feelings, and at any time they might not consider them, not notice them, or not want to deal with them. Right?
5. Now, knowing your feelings, what is the right thing to do?
6. Does something still bother you about the situation? Why?
7. Keep cycling through steps 2-6 till you feel certain enough of what to do. (It might not be a physical action, it could just be trusting yourself.)

Hope that helps! Remember, everything I say are just ideas to try out. Stay connected to what feels true to you, and you’ll find your way. At least, that’s what I think now!

Take care : )
-Oliver

Extra Stuff

Here’s a little picture I drew, demonstrating the idea that people can break through barriers without knowing the WHOLE truth. As you break through more barriers, you learn more about what’s true.

Anyone can overshoot the Truth when breaking through barriers towards a goal. But hey, it works!

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