—Adam Kayce at Viverati
Haruko, the goat in the picture, loves to play king/queen of the mountain. (See video.) And presumably Viverati is designed for people who want to be special, to feel superior to others. Some people are clearly motivated by that, but it’s not my style. We can see from the video that Haruko is having a great time, but no more than the ducks and the dog are. I actually identify more with the dog…I, too, have my moments of delight in just being alive.
But if I had to be an animal, I would like to be a search and rescue dog…they, too, get to the tops of mountains. And they do it with friends, have a great time, and make a contribution in the process. That, to me, is the way to live. For their video, click here.
What about you? How do you live your life to the max? Do you believe that “common” sucks?
Please share your thoughts in the comments section.
Thanks to bikehikebabe, Todd, Noa, and Daz for comments to the last post.
Robert at Reason-4-Smile has a related post: Ten symptoms of having vision beyond yourself. In it he quotes from Wikipedia about self-actualizing people:
That’s just the opposite of “breaking away from the sheeple“. It’s following your own path without disparaging people who live their lives differently.
Hi Jean, you mentioned the right thing, I listened to Eckhart Tolle’s Podcast, he mention that feeling inferior and superior means that you’re controlled by ego. I think that is very true. A person who is secure of himself will be secure enough to follow his own path.
Thanks a lot for the mention.
Robert
Hi Jean,
thanks for this wonderful post again.. I really love how you phrase it: “It’s following your own path without disparaging people who live their lives differently.”
That indeed is to me the real challenge in life.. Following your own path, and seeing other people for who they really are, instead of judging them, based on (mostly percepted) differences. Seeing each encounter as a possibility to learn ideally for both..
I totally agree with you that ‘being different than others’ should never be a goal in itself.. With that, you measure yourself, and your life with others. Trying to be ‘better’ (whatever that may be..) or different.. Where to me, the only goal in life should be to live your own best life..
“To feel inferior or superior, is to be controlled by your ego.” Remember that!
Great post. You have uncanny ability to get the point across. My take is to do whatever that brings inner, eternal peace and happiness. It has different forms for different people yet we all have our unique inner voice. Listen to it and try to focus on pleasing it rather than pleasing others.
Jean, you’re the best !
Shilpan
Robert, bikehikebabe, Ellen, and Shilpan,
It sounds as if we all agree…get our egos out of the way and don’t compare ourselves to others. Find what we’ve been put on earth to do and do it.
Thank you. 🙂
True to yourself without comparing yourself to others or making it all into a competition. There’s the challenge.
http://effortless-wealth.blogspot.com
Michael,
Amen to that!
Jean,
I really needed to hear this! Thanks!! It’s an easy trap to fall into. The self-actualization thing you noted (going to go read it at its’ source when I’m done here – so double thanks) and the ego thing mentioned in comments were WAY helpful to me…
Karen,
Yes, it’s really easy to fall into that trap…it seems to be part of our culture. I love the picture of the goat because from now on when someone starts playing ego games I’ll think of Haruko and smile.
🙂 Thank you for joining the discussion.
I think we all can be unique and important without busting our chops to learn something tricky or do something extreme.
Take blogging for example, your opinion is the most important one, because it’s your blog, but when you start to doubt your own importance you start linking to more and more content by other people, some people are so afraid to have an opinion they just post links to other peoples blogs, as if being a middleman makes them part of the process and cool by association.
Your own experiences and feeling are what set you apart from the rest, not the extreme and talented experiences of the top of the percentile heap. trust yourself as there are things you see and do everyday, chances to be great based on what decisions you make, everyday.
Did you treat the other guy as you would have wanted him to treat you or did you allow your fear to overtake you? That’s what sets you apart from being common!
Darren,
I agree. That’s why I keep my opinions short in my posts and why I love comments. It’s the sharing and interaction that’s important to me. Thank you for participating. 🙂