Who Are You?

Who Are You?

Day 1 of A Course for the Discovery of your Hidden Talent your Inner Passion and your Individual Path to Success and Happiness.

DAY 1

Who Are You?

If I am not I, Who will Be?

Henry David Thoreau

Knowing who you really are is the most important thing you can know about yourself. Do you know what sets you apart from other people? What is unique about you? There is something about you that makes you special and irreplaceable. There are gifts that only you can bring to this world and to your fellow man.

The purpose of this course is to help you discover those gifts and in so doing to discover yourself - your life purpose.

For many of us these gifts are buried underneath piles of "shoulds", "don'ts" and "who do you think you are's." They are buried beneath inherited ideas of who we are supposed to be and what others have told us to be. Few of us enjoyed the freedom and support, in our formative years, to discover our true selves.

It is a lifelong search -- learning about yourself -- but there are shortcuts and some helpful tools. This course will show you some of the most powerful tools and shortcuts. It will lead you through a process of self discovery.

Why bother?

Who says I don't know myself ?

Only you can answer those questions -- but before you do -- you might want to think about these questions:

Am I happy?

Am I healthy?

Am I successful?

The answer to these questions is a measure of how well you know yourself. Happiness, health, and success are important hallmarks of knowing yourself and being yourself.

When you are being yourself, your desires, needs and talents are aligned with your true purpose and success (on your own terms and by your own definition) is the natural result. Truly successful people are happy, in fact the only real measure of success is happiness.

Success and happiness eliminate unnecessary stress, emotional strain and "dis-ease" from your life and so you will also be naturally healthy. Dis-ease is just that -- lack of ease, or the lack of a feeling of well being.

Knowing yourself and acting on that knowledge brings ease, joy and peace to your life. It puts you directly in touch with the source of all life and makes you healthy, happy and whole.

A worthwhile goal wouldn't you say?

So how do we get started?

Well, you have already started! Self-knowledge and self-exploration is a life long journey -- an unavoidable journey. As a living being, you are automatically on this path.

But, there are ways to speed up the process -- to accelerate the understanding and the realization of your true self, to become more aware of your specific gifts and how to share them.

The first and most important step in the process is the simple realization that you are unique -- truly unique. There is no one in this universe, past, present or future, with your special talents, desires and abilities. There is no one with your unique gifts and life purpose. No one who can give to the world what you can give.

The truest guidepost for your uniqueness -- the one and only arbiter of your natural gifts and abilities -- is you.

Only you can reveal to yourself and to the world what those gifts and those abilities are. It is the very nature of your uniqueness that no one else can tell you who you are -- no one else can define you -- no one else can make your choices.

It is only for you to make those choices. That is the nature of your free will -- the very nature of your ability to create.

By making choices, and shaping your self-image, you create yourself both now and in the future. No one else does this or can do this for you. That is solely your right and privilege.

But just because you have the right and power of self- definition and self-creation doesn't mean that you understand that power or use it consciously as it is intended to be used.

All too often we let others define us and by accepting their definition we make it so! Unfortunately, their definition will not make us happy.

Have you ever seen the movie City Slickers? With Billy Crystal and Jack Palance? Billy plays a disenchanted advertising executive who is persuaded by his friends and wife to take a vacation on a western dude ranch in hopes of regaining his zest for life.

There he meets Jack Palance, a crusty, old and scary trail leader and they take an immediate disliking to each other. After a series of adventures Billy and Jack finally develop a mutual respect and even grow to like each other. At this point, Jack tells Billy he knows the meaning of life.

Billy is eager to learn Jack's secret and begs him for the answer. In answer, Jack simply holds up one finger. Billy, of course is puzzled by this and keeps pestering Jack for the answer. Jack in his terse and cryptic manner finally says "The meaning of life is one thing" Billy: Okay, okay, What is the one thing? Jack That is what you have to find out!

What Jack was saying is that each of us has one thing, one unique reason for being� that forms the core of our life and that gives it meaning. Finding that one thing is finding our purpose and when we find it everything else falls into place into perspective. Ultimately, only that one thing really matters.

So what is so special about you? and who exactly are you? What is your one thing? The simple answer to all three of these questions is, believe it or not, the same. And that is you are what you like. In fact more precisely, you are what you love.

What you love is what makes you unique and that is what gives your life meaning. No one else has your unique pattern of loves and likes. No one else sees the world quite the same way you do.

What you are attracted to creates and shapes your world. It defines your meaning in life. You become what you love, in fact, you are what you love. Your unique pattern of love gives your life its particular meaning and purpose not only for you but for everyone around you.

For now just take this on faith If you can find what you love, than you have found yourself and you have found your meaning in life.

But finding what you love is not always so easy. It is often buried beneath layers of what others say you should love or what you think you love. Love is ultimately an experiential not an intellectual thing. Sometimes the only way to find out what you really love is by doing it.

So to discover your life purpose, we are going to explore what you love (or more commonly what you like). And from all of your loves (and likes) we are going to look for the unique patterns that belong to you alone. From these, we are going to find your one thing -- your life purpose.

Exercise for Day 1:

Just to get warmed up, let's take a few minutes to write down something that you feel is special or unique about you. What makes you different from anyone else you know? It might be the hats you wear or the way you brush your teeth. It might be some secret dream or fantasy. Maybe it is a particular skill or hobby or whatever. Just write down something for now (as much as you like). You can always come back later and expand on this list when other things occur to you.

I Am Unique Because

Next: Section 1 -- The Nature of Reality

What You Need to Know About This Course:

This course is in the form of an ebook. After each chapter/day there is a simple excercise.designed for anyone who can think, read and write. We all have a purpose and we need to know what it is. If you are just starting out in life or if you have already lived a good deal of it ... no matter. It's never too late to learn more about yourself.

This course is in PDF format with 12 chapter/days that form 12 self-contained lessons. The chapters are concise and informative and the excercises take you step by step down the path of self discovery. Each chapter/day requires approximately 60 - 90 minutes to read and complete the excercises.

The course draws from scientific and spiritual disciplines to help you learn about yourself. It is universal in its intent. It is not necessary that you believe or even agree with the concepts presented to get out of the course what is intended for you. The benefit is a sensing of what is true for you and what is true about you. No external concepts or beliefs should sway your built-in, compass that points to the truth about yourself -- find it and follow it wherever it leads.

If you find this course helpful and you would like to spread the word, email your friends a short note saying something like "Here's a course/ebook I think you may like ... let me know what you think." and include the link to this web page

We created this course to help as many as possible learn more about themselves and find their personal brand of happiness. We like to think it will help many people do just that. Help us spread the word.

To your life success,

T. E. D.

ted@godinsideme.com

You may purchase and download the complete course/ebook by clicking the "Buy Now" button below. The current price is $29.95.