A friend was telling me about his frustration with how little he felt he had accomplished in his life. He has large aspirations that he is passionate about, and as he gets older, he wonders if his dreams are slipping out of his reach.
He wonders if he is becoming irrelevant in his career, frustrated that he has not been able yet to replace his current career with a new career that would be more meaningful to him.
I spent some time honoring his feelings, and then when the time was right, I reminded him about all he had accomplished that had made a positive difference in the lives of people he loved and cared about.
Achievement is the expression of Sacred Masculine energy. Achievement feels good and deserves to be celebrated; however, when we beat ourselves up for our lack of achievement, we are not honoring our efforts or our sacred nature.
Are you a failure?
A few years ago I read a study that was done with the CEOs of some large corporations. The secret they admitted in an anonymous survey that they might not admit in person is that a lot of time they felt like frauds. They didn’t feel prepared for the responsibilities they had been given and weren’t sure one could ever actually be prepared for the responsibilities they shouldered. They didn’t always feel competent for the decisions they had to make.
I’ve worked with and known enough CEOs, employees, business owners, mothers, fathers, spiritual devotees, professors, students, politicians, employees, teenagers and children to be fairly certain that there are pivotal points in every person’s life when you just aren’t sure you know what you are doing or that the decisions you made were the best ones. Most of the time people are just doing the best they can in that moment.
Sure, in retrospect, you can see a dozen different choices you might have made, but all you truly ever have in any moment of truth is your understanding in that moment, based upon what you have learned up to that point.
You are not terrible because you didn’t meet your goals, become prosperous, find the right relationship, fulfill your purpose, lose weight, heal your illness or become an overnight success. Neither are you wonderful because you did any one or all of those things.
From a Sacred Feminine perspective, your value is not measured by achievement alone.
What is the measure of a life?
Some of us will be rich and wildly famous. Others of us will live quiet, sweet lives and be known only to a few. Some of us will fulfill nearly every dream we have ever had. Others of us will come back for another lifetime in order to complete our most significant dreams. Regardless of how we do it, we can, if we choose, experience the joy inherent within life.
Can you honestly tell me that the janitor at your school who made it his job to consciously watch over every child he could when they arrived or left school to make sure that they were safe led a less significant life than your favorite movie star?
Or what about the female business owner who runs a profitable company, who takes time on the weekends to sit quietly with an uncle getting ready to cross over, listening to him share his life stories, regrets and loves so that he can slip gently over to the other side? What is the greater success—her business accomplishments or her compassionate tending to a family member?
Maybe the janitor hoped to do more with his life, but ended up in a building taking care of it, the teachers and the kids. Maybe the business owner had the potential to be a famous singer, but instead spends her days at work helping others succeed and then shares her peaceful, healing presence with her loved one on the weekend. What is the measure of one’s life?
It is wonderful to dream and aspire. It is great to achieve. That’s how you keep life exciting. However, perhaps the greater measure of a life—the real success—is in your expressions of love. Consider the following story.
What truly gives your life value?
A dear friend of mine once crossed over to the other side and returned. She said to me some years later, “Misa, you know what they really care about when you get to the other side? They care about the kindnesses you did for others. They don’t care if you met your goals or fulfilled your purpose. They care about whether or not you were kind.”
So here we are thinking life is all about how well we set our goals and achieve them, and it is really all about how well we live from our hearts.
So tell me, do you live from your heart? Do you make someone’s life a little bit better? A lot better? Do you love a little bit more, a little bit deeper or more expansively than you have before? Do you laugh, trust, love, believe, hope, and enjoy life? Then you are living a good life.
Yes, we need to aspire and dream, and we do need to achieve in our lives, but may I suggest that you don’t measure your worth only by what you did or did not achieve. Rather, know that you are valuable because you are a precious and unique expression of the Divine. And know that achievements or great value often take place over time, and according to my friend that crossed over and returned, are born from many small acts of kindness.
Become familiar with your unique spiritual gifts, because these define who you are as a sacred being. They point the way, showing you how to be of service, and how to achieve in the ways that are best for you. That’s why I offer psychic readings. It is typically harder to see who you are than it is to see what you do. And it can be challenging to understand how how your natural, spiritual gifts can serve you and others.
You are of value because you are an expression of the Divine, with your unique spiritual gifts and kindness of heart, experimenting and experiencing life on planet earth. That’s it!
If you have made the life of anyone else a little bit better, your heart has honored your value and theirs. Honoring who you are and being a loving, caring person is a beautiful way to live. As your actions and achievements, however large or small, planned or unplanned, reflect your most profound love, your life has the greatest value of all!
