Are you living your truth?
Are you following your heart with reckless abandon?
Or do you feel like you’re holding back?
Don’t worry. You’re not alone.
And it doesn’t mean you aren’t good enough.
It simply means that you may need to tweak where you’re going, and how you’re doing things.
And that’s what today’s article is about.
You see, I recently came across a book called Live Your Truth by Kamal Ravikant.
I resonated so deeply with the book that I had to share some of my favorite passages.
So if you’re interested in living your truth, keep reading.
1. Work on Yourself
We don’t stumble accidentally into an amazing life. It takes decision, a commitment to consistently work on ourselves.
Wanting to live a passionate, fulfilling life is not enough. Action needs to be a part of the equation.
Be willing to act where you are with what you have. Don’t wait for circumstances to line up. Pay attention to your heart, and the opportunities life is bringing you.
The more scared you are, the more likely that you’re onto something meaningful.
No need to quit your job. Or leave your family.
What is required is something scarier than that: A daily commitment to facing your fears, starting small, and putting one foot in front of the other.
2. Open Yourself Fully
Sometimes the only way to evolve is to open ourselves fully. Be raw, honest. Vulnerable.
The world is hungry for it. And the greatest healing — for you, for those around you — it comes from opening. Opening yourself wide. To your humanness, to your feelings. And ultimately, to yourself.
Doing work you love is ultimately about sharing a part of you with the world.
People crave real stories. Real interactions. Real connections.
When I meet new people, the more I let my guard down, the more they relax. The more I show who I am, the more the conversation flourishes.
There’s nothing to hide. No need to put a mask on. No need to pretend to be someone you’re not.
The wall you’ve built doesn’t keep people from hurting you. It keeps you from living life.
3. Happiness from Within
When your sense of self and happiness comes from within and isn’t a roller coaster ride dependent on others or circumstances, you approach life differently. You make better choices. You draw to you the people and situations that matter. The others, they fall away.
I may not be able to change someone. I may not be able to change a circumstance. But I can change myself, how I respond, who I am being. That is where all the power resides. Inside.
When I change the way I view the world, the world changes.
I don’t have to change my circumstances to be happy, I have to change how I relate to the world.
Happiness is wanting what I get. In order to be happy, I have to let go of the attachment to wanting more, or something else.
This doesn’t mean I don’t prefer more. It means realizing that I don’t need more to be okay.
Being okay comes from accepting where I am and who I am. Trusting that my heart will lead the way.
4. On Unpredictability
If my company had not failed, the book [Live Like Your Life Depended On It] would not have been written. And if the book had not been written, one of those lives might have gone.
After Kamal wrote his first book, he received emails from readers thanking him. A few of those told him that the book stopped them from committing suicide.
What seemed like the end of the world to Kamal was a stroke of luck, an opportunity to start anew. To do what made his heart sing.
All of this was possible because he was willing to open himself to life. To embrace the uncertainty.
No one knows where we’re going. Or what’s going to happen tomorrow. All we can do is live life one moment at a time.
The more I cling to how I think life should be, the more I suffer.
The problem isn’t uncertainty, but my resistance to it. I don’t want to know the future. I want to know myself.
5. Let Life Flow
Peace is saying to yourself, “it’s ok.” Peace is knowing that the maze the mind plays in is not the truth. Peace is knowing that life is. Just is. How we choose to react to it determines our reality.
Resisting life is many people’s M.O. But there is a different path, a radically simple one: To completely accept what is happening.
Notice that life isn’t positive or negative. It is.
Life is a blank canvas. You choose the colors. You choose the painting you want to create.
This isn’t about changing your thoughts, but about changing the reaction to your thoughts.
I may worry about money, but I can remain as the silent witness. I don’t have to feed my thoughts by believing them.
No need to try and put out future fires. What will come will come.
6. Sprout Wings on the Way Down
The best people, they’re afraid, they question themselves. Many, if you corner them, will admit that they wonder if they’re good enough. But what separates them from the rest is that they jump off the cliff anyway. Sprout wings on the way down.
I question myself. I wonder if I’m good enough, because I care about what I’m doing.
When you care about your work, you doubt yourself.
It’s not a problem, unless it stops you from following your heart.
When it keeps you from moving forward, take a step anyway. Jump off the cliff. Gasp in wonder as wings sprout from your back, or not.
7. Contemplate Death
Even if you are one of the lucky ones who gets to do a full tour on this planet. Plenty of time, right? Read up on the regrets of the dying, those in nursing homes. Same throughout. Not loving enough, doing the shoulds instead of the wants.
I’m lucky to have realized that doing the shoulds doesn’t make me happy.
What brings lasting happiness is following and expressing my heart.
I don’t need a crystal ball. My job is to listen to my inner wisdom, be myself, and do my best.
One day, my heart will stop beating, and none of my fears will matter. What will matter is how I lived.
Wrap Up
Kamal ends his book with the following paragraph:
The same stuff galaxies are made of, you are. The same energy that swings planets around stars makes electrons dance in your heart. It is in you, outside you, you are it. It is beautiful. Trust in this. And you and your life will be grand.
At our core, we are the same. Even our hopes and dreams are the same.
When we go far enough into the past, you and I, we are brethren.
And we are on this planet to live our truth, to be fully ourselves. To share our story with the world.
You may not always know what your truth is, but you don’t have to. All you have to do is your best. One moment at a time.
The question is: Are you willing to live your truth?
No grand plan required.
Just one step at a time.
Keep moving!
Henri
P.S. Remember to grab Kamal’s book, Live Your Truth. It’s short, to the point, and magically written.
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Hey Henri,
Thank-you for your invaluable insights, actionable insights and reminder to take one day at a time and listen to your “go-with-the flow with your Spirit-led intuition and instructions on what next steps to take and enjoy.”
Philippians 4:4-9, Matthew 6:25-34, Ephesians 3:14-21.
Your friend,
Geary
Thanks Geary!
What a powerful post. To live your truth is to achieve one of the only things that are truly significant in a life worth living.
I think a lot of people don’t do the things you listed above because they aren’t fully committed to their ‘passion’ or they believe that they don’t have one.
What I’ve learned is that it’s not so important as finding your purpose or pursuing your passion, but about living with passion. Do everything that you do as if you were meant to do it.
If you only enjoy things that revolve around your passion, you’re missing out on so many other great things that go on in life. By passionately living you can find the joy in all the tiny things that go overlooked by most in life.
Be passionate, about everything, and let the world see.
Well put, George.
We have to remember that life has problems and difficulties. They aren’t bad. We learn from them. We grow. So embrace life fully, while doing your best with what you have.
Everyone has passion in their life. Some more than others. It’s not about radical changes, but about gradually expanding the passion that’s already there.
Henri, my heart is full. I had forgotten how reading your posts always sounds like listening to your voice. You have a great written voice, my friend. 🙂
Thank you for the reminders and the encouragement. Sometimes when you choose to follow your heart, the world might think you are crazy.
Why? Because they are busy doing the opposite. And you can’t blame them because the business of following your heart is not for the faint hearted.
For a long time I’ve wanted to follow my heart. To write my poetry with abandon and just put it out there for the world. But I always postponed it for more “serious” things. The “shoulds” as you call them.
But not so long ago, I decided to take the plunge and I know the wings will sprout.
Thank you Henri, for the iinspiration.
Glad to hear you’re taking the plunge!
People may think you’re crazy, but that’s a sign that you’re on the right track. “Normal” is no longer normal. Crazy is how we’re supposed to live. We’re made to follow our hearts and to live our truth.
Keep rocking!
This is simply beautiful, Henri.
Thanks Kamal. I appreciate it!
I used to wonder, why live my truth? (Here’s my inner philosopher coming out..)Why is it so important? What’s the point? Why do anything for that matter? Why I don’t I just stay put and consume? Why can’t people just be happy with consuming their dreams thru a TV, essentially? In terms if survival, we have everything we need in the developed world as long as we compromise by keeping a regular schedule of doing some kind of task for someone else (job). What’s he point of not just having that regular job and living in the between times? The simplest answer is expressing yourself. To die having held back personal expression is to be wasteful, and the universe doesn’t like to wasteful – it likes to experience. It’s perhaps the strongest need of all. Great article, the first one I’ve read of yours, will read more.
I like the way you think, Riley. And I’d add to that that it doesn’t feel good. It’s not fulfilling, not satisfying.
Great lessons, Henri.
“When it keeps you from moving forward, take a step anyway. Jump off the cliff. Gasp in wonder as wings sprout from your back.”
Wise words. I also have my own doubts about myself but I know that I can’t afford to sit and let the doubts linger for too long.
Only yesterday I thought that why do I keep on trying…. And reading this today… I know why I keep going. I have a truth to live and my truth can make a difference in other people’s lives…. Thank you, again, for sharing your articles with us!
Now i see a reason to always be happy with myself,
Thanks henri
Henri, thank you! Meaningful article. What I love about your writting and videos is that it brings some quality of calmness, peace, which I think SO many people in the world desperately lack nowadays.
Hi Henri,
I have been a silent observer and follower of your amazing work. What really impressed me was that you actually, (a long while ago), personally answered an email question of mine and what you said helped me. Today, what I have read here is spot on, as usual, just what I need. I am really amazed at your wisdom and insight, way beyond your years. I appreciate that you stuck your neck out and continue to express yourself.
Thanks for the kind words, Lynne. And that the email helped 🙂