From reading a lot of entrepreneurship and personal development blogs, you get the (not-so-subtle) impression that job security is an illusion (or rather, fool’s gold) and that self-employment is pretty much the holy grail of personal happiness and financial freedom.
But according to whom?
I mean if you think about it, entrepreneurship, happiness, mental peace, and the whole enchilada are illusions in and of themselves. Right? RIGHT?
So who’s right?
Well, nobody is. If you’re a personal development addict (and if you’re reading this blog, you probably are – let’s not kid ourselves here), you’ve heard time and time again that only you can create your reality; your reality is a projection of your mind.
So in essence, anything you project is an illusion. Only you can choose whether to play along with an illusion or not. And that includes happiness. And financial independence. And all the other touchy-feely, Kumbaya, let’s-just-get-along-and-give-hugs stuff.
What I’m trying to say is: if that’s (whatever that is) your cup of tea, nobody has the power to stop you. Other people can’t rain on your crazy, psychotic delusions – er, parade – if you don’t let them.
If you love your job, then by gawd, knock yourself out! If you don’t well … … … by gawd, knock yourself the heck out!
The problem is when YOU get in the way of your own illusions. Sounds weird, right? But we all do it. We all sabotage ourselves but it’s not news to you. We all start out with a dream and we get excited about it. Then we start to lose a little steam. Maybe even start wondering if it was all a pipe dream. We start to get disenchanted and retreat back to our comfort zone.
Disenchantment can and does happen. There’s no avoiding it. But you do have to be proactive about keeping yourself in check. Be honest with yourself. What’s working for you? What’s not? What illusions do you want to keep? Which ones do you want to throw away? What can you do today to keep up with the charade (and I mean ‘charade’ in a positive way)?
Your life is laboratory, a stage, and a studio all meshed together into one. You make the rules or someone will make them for you. You can choose to have fun with it or not.
So, what are your rules?
Being enchanted is a GOOD thing. You don’t ever – and I mean ever – want to be disenchanted for an extended period of time. Because either way you’re going to be caught up in one thing or another, so you might as well be enchanted in something that you choose.
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{ 6 comments… read them below or add one }
I agree a little too whole-heartedly, there are far too many warm fuzzy blogs out there saying “Reach for the golden ring (entrepreneurship, personal development, love, life happiness, etc) and it shall be yours.” What irks me about these blogs is that they only focus on the warm fuzzies, they don’t touch on the cold realities.
Realities which sometimes cause you to have to derail/adjust/accept. Realities that help you grow and learn and adapt and realize what your TRUE dreams and desires are. Realities that lead us to a little bit of disenchantment but in the end make us better people.
Elisa´s last blog ..Blog Crush – Susan Pogorzelski
You and Diggy posting on self sabotage on the same day – great minds think alike! I have DEFINITELY got in my own way lately and it’s not easy to admit. Why is it that we get so terribly excited at first, go all out and then retreat as you said “back into our comfort zones”.
Today, i’m taking time to list my goals again — and set the bar much higher!
thanks for the post, Valerie!
Well if you ask the question being self employed is owning your own job. It’s just the same as the job. Owning a big business where you have people work for you is more secure.
What is security? It’s control. You don’t have control of the market and if it goes the wrong way so will your job or self employment.
Bill Hicks said long ago that this was just a ride. It seems to me people are taking a ride and waiting for the real stuff to begin.
The way the mind is constructed is about perceiving things with our senses.
What is dangerous is that the mind cannot tell the difference between real and virtual.
Limiting beliefs cause us to stop in success because our body is like a computer program and if you say I want to help people but not exploit them for money you will not make money helping people.
What you have to do is either change the belief or change the way you will complete the goal.
On a final note, illusions are shattered as our awareness increases, knowledge experience. We have a better picture of what things really are as we study them more.
The problem is you have a majority of people unwilling to find the answers and will chose any short cut illusion because it is all so scary not to know.
People have a choice to either investigate what is going on in their life or to ignore it and accept whatever they believe.
Mac´s last blog ..How I Made $4,200 in 1 Day Playing Online Poker…
@ Elisa: Love your new Gravatar! Or am I a bit late for that?
I used to always think there was something wrong with me because I’m far from being the most positive person in the world, but I’m realizing more and more how many people put up a facade in that aspect. Personal development is chock full of people who put up that act, and frankly, yes, it’s not believable. You’re definitely right, reality is just as much about the bad stuff as it is about the great, “fuzzy” moments.
@ Brian: Good to see you here! I know … it is a coincidence. I’m guessing Diggy is in a reflective mode for his birthday. Can you blame him … he’s getting old … or young, depending on who you ask, lol. You’re not alone about getting in your way, though. I’ve been off track for a couple of weeks now and trying to get back on. Rewriting a list may not be such a bad idea!
@ Mac: Good point about breaking down limiting beliefs to increase awareness. I think we’re always going to have some limiting belief one way or another. Furthermore, it seems to me that everything is an illusion. So shattering all illusions kind of makes no sense. If you’re basically giving up one illusion for another. Why? Because the way we perceive the world is limited. Technically, even ‘awareness’ is an illusion, because we, as individuals, are the only people who can determine what ‘awareness’ means. ‘Awareness’ has no meaning except to the person who experiences it.
Instead of fighting an uphill battle, it may be better to find out which ‘illusions’ are working for you or not.
Hey Valerie:)
Awesome post miss:) I’m getting old??? pffft. hehehe, It’s just starting miss!
Hope you have a wonderful weekend:)
Ciaociao
D
Diggy – Upgradereality.com´s last blog ..Too Much Mind
I think I’m probably a slacker for not commenting for awhile so you could see my new gravatar!
People say constantly that I’m optimistic, I think there’s two kinds of optimism. There’s blind optimism when you just always believe that the good things will happen and then there’s optimistic realism where you realize the circumstances of various realities but still hope and wish for the best outcome given all factors involved.
Elisa´s last blog ..Being “Good Enough” In Activism