In Seth Godin’s book Linchpin, we find out about drawing your own map, about how we should question the rules of the system, about being a heretic.

Standing up for our dignity is tough when we are rewarded otherwise.  Raising your hand to stupidity is hard when you’re concerned about getting all your fingers back.

But there’s a day coming when you will say, “I’ve had enough!”  When that day comes, don’t test the water with a toe-dip.  Make a committed decision to act with confidence.

And since this decision to stand up for yourself may be your last with your company, I say pick something worthy, not a few unauthorized changes to your office décor. 

There comes a time in our journey when we start to accept that maybe, just maybe I can do something different. When that happens, we get bombarded with negative and distracting thoughts. Thoughts so powerful, they can stop our journey and return us to the life of our past. 

Why would we do this to ourselves?

Freud called it our Super-Ego, Canfield called it our Parent brain, and I call it a nasty lying parasite.  It’s part of our psychic apparatus that recalls all of our historical events, cultural norms and teachings to remind us to stay between the lines, don’t take risks, and follow the crowd.

Don’t let your mind undermine your dream.  Acknowledge the counterproductive thoughts, laugh at them, say “I know what you’re doing you little jerk” and continue on.

We will discover the nature of our particular genius when we stop trying to conform to our own or to other people’s models, learn to be ourselves, and allow our natural channel to open. ~ Shakti Gawain

“No one remains quite what he was when he recognizes himself” ~ Thomas Mann

This drawing is about the next step in the “Knowing Yourself” series.  "GET OUT OF TOWN!"  Some call it a personal retreat, some call it a walkabout, call it what you like, but I think you need a few days away from your normal environment so you can clear your mind of all the distractions.

Life has a way of giving us so many things to do that we actually think we must do them.  That’s right, you can say no and the Sun will come up tomorrow.  Move yourself up on the priority list, get off the gerbil wheel for a few days, and get to know yourself again.

I know, I know, getting out of town is tough. No money, kids, scheduling issues, spouse would freak out, hate being alone, yada, yada, yada.  The average American lives about 28,500 days. If not now, then when?

It is only when we silent the blaring sounds of our daily existence that we can finally hear the whispers of the truth that life reveals to us, as it stands knocking on the doorsteps of our hearts. ~ K.T. Jong

The value of identity, of course, is that so often with it comes purpose. ~ Richard Grant

Most people are just not interested in an internal exploration.  It takes time, it takes focus, but most of all it takes honesty and that is scary stuff.  However, once you pry the lid off this so-called Pandora’s box, I think you’ll find it very liberating.

Step one in this ‘know yourself’ business is to examine how you’re wired.  

Many professionals believe our personality is set for life between six and eight years old.  Some think it might change a little as we age but not that much.  That being said, I believe it makes sense to at least get an elementary understanding of how personality plays into your view of the world today.

I took a personality test many years ago and the results indicated I was a loud mouth who likes to party, easily distracted, couldn’t care less about the details, independent, and loves change. Translation: Don’t put me in an office alone, crunching numbers every day, with deadlines and supervision because it will surely backfire.

By the way, this was my life for my first five years out of college with my ACCOUNTING DEGREE! Major disaster!

My point here is that just spending a couple of hours reading about how you are wired might prevent years of trying to understand why you hate your job.

I believe all personality styles are perfect and no style is better than any other; however, you will find that certain styles are more appropriate for certain activities because deeply innate needs are being fulfilled.  Water runs downhill easily, requiring very little effort on our part, but making water go against the laws of physics requires a good bit of work. I pushed water uphill for five years before it dawned on me that something was wrong.

Go take a personality test and let’s get this party started! There are plenty of free ones on the Internet. You don’t need a fifty-page printout that analyzes your every decision. You just need a general overview of your natural strengths and shortcomings, things that motivate you and those that don’t.

Taking the first step on a long journey is normally the most difficult. Take it, take it now.

“Knowing others is intelligence; knowing yourself is true wisdom.”  Lao-Tzu

This is the first in a series of drawings that follow the “Know-Free-Be” process from my book. Without trying to sound all Rah-Rah here, my goal is to inspire a dialogue around the dinner table about making the second half of our lives breathtaking, amazing, and as John Keating tells us in the Dead Poets Society, extraordinary.  I don’t think it’s that hard but it does require deliberateness, an open mind to the possibilities, and the spunk to stand up to the forces of mediocrity. So, if you’re game, let’s get started:

This drawing is about losing our love for life itself.  For falling into the trap of living the cultural success game and allowing other people to chart your course.  Something has changed, but you dare not explore.  You wake up one day and realize you’ve lost the ability to feel, to enjoy, to create.  You decide to settle and fake it except for an occasional talk with your best friend.

In the quote below, Swiss psychoanalyst Carl Jung points out that things will change as we move into the afternoon of our lives:

“Wholly unprepared, we embark upon the second half of life… we take the step into the afternoon of life; worse still we take this step with the false assumption that our truths and ideals will serve as before.

But we cannot live the afternoon of life according to the program of life’s morning - for what was great in the morning will be little at evening, and what in the morning was true will at evening have become a lie.”

Dr. Wayne Dyer also writes about the afternoon of one’s life and how a shift will occur:  “Such a shift eliminates our feelings of separateness, illuminates our spiritual connectedness, and involves moving from the ego-directed morning into the afternoon of life where everything is primarily influenced by purpose.”

When we find life has become difficult, not enjoyable, or boring then something is wrong. I call it life outside our “sweet spot.” This can happen due to a change in our environment or a change in us. Most of the time, it’s a little of both. The first step on this journey is figuring out who we are today, and that, my friend, may prove to be the hardest thing we will do.

“Knowing yourself is the beginning of all wisdom” ~ Aristotle