As we entered this new decade at the turn of the new year, despite having every intention, for the first time since I can remember, I neglected to write a new personal mission statement. I did however read over some of what I had written to myself in the past several years. To commemorate this new year I even had in my mind the steps I was planning, to write my mission statement for 2010, complete with spreadsheets for tracking my progress. However, not a word of my mission was written until today because in my heart I could feel that something was wrong with my thinking this year, or maybe for many years.
Over the last several weeks I became aware that I wasn’t thinking completely for myself, one of my concerns was that I had allowed myself to become comfortably numb about the world around me. Sure I’ve been distracted by things in my personal life, such as loss of family members including someone I loved who left before his time, plus my business interests had been exceptionally tumultuous and occasionally stressful, on top of all this my own creature comfort habits had reached a level bordering on obsessive compulsive but none of these things alone was what was bothering me deep inside.
So I made a few major lifestyle modfications without even writing the new goals down, I just achieved them, almost like leaving one era of my life and entering another. Then in an attempt to understand the recurring notion that something in my life was misaligned I started consuming information at a tremendous rate, while at the same time stepped up my physical activity and exercise, reduced my food intake and eliminated all toxins. The data that I loaded in to my mind to process was very diverse and came from a broad spectrum of sources, mostly printed material, video segments and full length documentaries. Much of what I analyzed was not happy or uplifting but eventually I discovered one common nagging question I needed to answer.
During the past several years I’d travelled extensively but generally spent at least 6 months of each year in Sao Paulo, Brazil, however what I had seen and experienced in a dozen world capital cities on three continents had left skid marks on my psyche, especially interactions with individuals in America, where I witnessed otherwise sound intelligent people, reaching the depths of depravity, in a culture seemingly destined to bring down the entire empire, in one big blaze of glory. While in Vancouver, Rio, London, Barcelona and Amsterdam I was struck with the thought that each society showed symptoms of the same disease, people everywhere were mimicking the debauched role models who were leading us. What was this modern malady?
Towards the end of my process of self-evaluation and deep personal lifestyle retrospective I came to realize that world events in the past decade had slammed my mind with an information overload, my brain needed a scan. So many diabolical deeds had happened in the world that I’d unconsciously been brainwashed by “Group Think” and was being led towards our demise with the rest of the “Sheeple”, just like the other 87% of the population of the planet. Even though I’m not much of a TV addict I had been receiving much of my information from mainstream media. The “People Think” data feed, combined with what happened as a result of my life experiences and the way in which I questioned the events of the world around me, caused chronic apathy.
Recently a breakthrough came, best described by a quote from “A Course in Miracles“:
“Seek not to change the world but choose to change your mind about the world”
There’s one nagging question that I had to address in order to change my mind about the world. Once this question was answered I felt a new clarity of mind. I had to know, what is the significance of the date December 21, 2012? Once I figured that out, everything else became clear to my mind, including what I should be doing with my life. Now I feel at peace with myself and my new mission statement was simple:
Through a commitment to self-empowerment and dedication to knowledge, I will strive to elevate my consciousness.
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