Awakening; Always Do Your Best

In watching an interview with Don Miguel Ruiz, who is the author of the world renowned novel, "The Four Agreements: A Practical Guide To Personal Freedom", and I was reminded about how I felt the first time I read that book many years ago. I recall going to a training session that had as a foundation many of the principles addressed in the book.  This session made such an impact on me, that it actually ended up changing how I would proceed with my life along with my career in management thereafter. I learned so many things in that seminar, that I ended up replicating a lot of it and turning around to teach my own staff afterwards, as I wanted them to reach towards being their best in their everyday life.  This was a very big concept to take on, in that being your best is actually a lot of work all the time.  At first, it is more work than it is after you have adopted that principle.  However, like all things if you want to reap the benefits of hard work, you must do the work first before you see such an outcome.  According to the book, "Your best is going to change from moment to moment; it will be different when you are healthy as opposed to sick. Under any circumstance, simply do your best, and you will avoid self-judgment, self-abuse, and regret."  Again more powerful and truthful words about what it means to be in this state.  It is true that because time changes and you change along with it, that the meaning of this also fluctuates in where you happen to be in life.  At the core, it is a very simple principle in that you have control in what you do and whether they are small or large actions, you are ultimately responsible and will be the benefactor of what you produce.  This is why when I talk about changing for the better, it is always the small steps and the things that you do when nobody is looking that take on such importance.  At the end of the day, you are not accountable to your parents (unless you are a minor), your spouse, children or other loved ones.  You are ultimately accountable to yourself for all of the choices that you decided to make along the way in your life.  A real key here is to look out for those choices that you make even after you have had a lesson that should have taught you how to proceed differently in the future.  I can own up to these tough lessons that I ended up repeating as a result of my own lack of acknowledgement of what they were trying to teach me the first time.  Perhaps you happen to be in that stage of your life when you are reflecting about your choices that got you to this place and contemplating on your future selections you will be making to take you on the course of the rest of your life's voyage.  When you do your best even when nobody is looking, you will most likely feel at peace with what you have accomplished, as there is no better test for this self actualization.  The rest of this great book offers many other great teachings that would benefit anyone no matter where they are in life, therefore I highly recommend it.  The best part about making conscience decisions is that you will arrive at an awakening of sorts, as the book implies.  This awakening is what many would consider moments of enlightenment, as it is the place where your body and soul meet to compliment each other in validating where you are in your existence.  It is an amazing feeling to know that doing your best, no matter how small can have such a significant impact on your life.  Remember that if you strive to live in this manner you will reap the many benefits that come with awakening to this part of your being.