Design Yourself Every Single Day: Risk the Intense Grandness of Living Awake
How awake are you? If you are reading this, you woke up today. You had a moment earlier when you moved from sleeping to perceiving the world around you through your senses again for the first time.
Yes, for the first time, again, and again, and again. The fact that the date is, or is still close to, January 1st is irrelevant, a human construct to keep us marching forward in a nice, neat, organized [read: brainwashed] fashion that keeps you from designing your life and harnessing your awesomeness.
We civilized humans have the silly notion that each morning we awaken to the same reality. I mean, you can if you want to, but you can also wake up to a whole new reality every single day. You are that powerful. You are so powerful you can wake into a new reality every single day. You can even wake into a new reality in every single moment. No need to wait until morning. That’s some advanced mindfulness right there. But tomorrow morning will work too. Remember you are the one with the power. Time is indifferent to your quest.
What’s the first thing you do when you wake up? Whatever that is, don’t do that. Seriously. It is called radical discontinuity. It is that simple. You are going to start every single day with a new experience, a new experience that you choose. You could choose to brush your teeth or find your way to a cup of ambition like you do, like you have done, like you can again whenever you wish. But what if tonight you decided that tomorrow morning the first thing you are going to do is something else?
Whoa. “Something else.” That’s daunting. Isn’t it daunting to consider that you get to mindfully choose what you do in each moment? You. You are in charge.
Oh wait, there it is. That voice, that inner voice that says, “No you don’t. You don’t get to choose. You have to . . .” I don’t even need to ask you to fill in the blank, because likely your inner saboteur just showed up to keep you from your badass power. That inner saboteur is the voice of your fear of the unknown. It’s the voice within you that undermines your creativity, your power, your most passionate self.
Now that is not to say that we don’t have to show up for those in our lives. We may have people who depend on us, careers we care about, financial responsibilities, and pressures we may feel that no one else could understand. We may also feel the frustration of an uneven playing field. We may lack privileges or have privileges. We may feel impotent given all that is happening around us. And yet, I bring you back to your power.
Wake up tomorrow morning and consider yourself as the powerful sculptor of your existence. Life as art. You design what mindfood you consume. You decide who you share your life and mind with each moment. You choose your response to your emotions. You approach your responsibilities and creativity with the power that you wield. You can decide to wait for more power, better timing, justice for injustice you’ve experienced, improved health, a body or mind that works differently, or you can act with the power you have right this moment.
In every choice, there is power and possibility. You have until the end of your days on this earth to embody that wisdom. Maybe tomorrow is your day. Make tomorrow your day. Or make this moment your moment. Keep waking until you are living awake, awesome ones.
*This article was originally posted on Medium on January 4, 2020.
