Listen to your life

 An interesting question came to mind today. Who am I? Am I who I see or who you see? Could I be both who you see and who I see? How are we defined by the world? It is important to be able to grasp who we are so we can create a fulfilling life. A life where we are doing “What we were born for”.

I am an instructor at The Sea School, most of the students look up at me as the expert in maritime maters, at my level. I also always looked up to the instructors before me as experts. But the truth is that I am often learning from my students. Am I the master as they see me or the student as I see me? Maybe I am both.

I am often amazed that people see me as someone special that I never see. I then find myself pushing myself to become that person. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe said, “If I accept you as you are, I will make you worse; however if I treat you as though you are what you are capable of becoming, I help you become that”. This resonates with me. When people I care about are inspired by an action I take and tell me how good that makes them feel, I want to do it more and more.

oes this mean that we are not who we think we are? Yes and no. We are who we see as ourselves and we have the potential to become the person that others see us to already be. Sometimes it is easier to see the potential in others and the flaws in ourselves. That is why we need to compliment others and let them know about the things that we feel they are good at. It inspires them to become better and do more.

Many people are talking about finding the passions in our lives then living those passions. They say find the things that you would do even if it never made any money. Look at the things you are good at and love to do. One way I think that you can find those things that you are good at is listen to what others say you are do well. Do those things make you feel good too? Could be that is one of your talents. Try it, that is the only way to know.

I am an orator. People tell me that I speak well, and I am not afraid to make a fool of myself in front of a crowd. Afterwords some one often comments to me that my class was helpful and inspiring. That is what convinced me to pursue oration, I already was an orator. I have no problem standing in front of a group of men and women speaking for eight hours a day. I actually enjoy it!

My friends, as a teen, often called me a philosopher. When I started to use Face book I felt the need to post inspiring quotes every day. That was good, but I also felt the need to express more of my own feelings about those quotes and that is the birth of this blog. I hope this is following a path toward inspirational/motivational speaking.

The point is that when you listen to what it is that you do good then you can often see the path you should take toward a more fulfilling life. The life you were born to.