Daily Mood Quote - July 1, 2011

 

Daily Mood Quote

Day 58 – July 1, 2011

Do you want to know who you are? Don't ask. Act! Action will delineate and define you.

~Thomas Jefferson

I can remember a number of times when I was a child, the words “you can't” and “your not smart enough for that” and of course that infamous phrase “no, you can never do that!” All in the context of what I wanted to do when I grew up. Remember, Day 8, May 12, I wanted to be a nun? Like many before me and many after me, I asked questions in order to find out who I was. When we are children we believe our parents know best, or at least know us best. Boy, was I wrong.

There is a song “Teach your children” by Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young and in the song there is a phrase that goes, “and you of tender years can't know the fears that your elders grew by.” When is the last time fear made a good decision about who you are? Sometimes, inadvertently or without information, we tend to make decisions for and push identities onto the next generation. Occasionally, those attitudes can be based on bad experiences, our own failures and even our own successes. Let's face it, we only want the best for our children and ourselves. Unfortunately, we forget that mistakes have to happen in order to learn. It's the job of us “who are on the road” to “teach them well,” not tell them who they are or what they can't become. No two people are alike, even when they come from the same family. For me, it took many years to come out of my shell and be true to myself.

In the movie Daddy Day Care, Becca (played by Hailey Noelle Johnson) said to Charlie Hinton (played by Eddie Murphy) “We need more learning about things! Yes, We're at a very critical age. You have to feed our minds!” We are always at a “critical age,” learning doesn't stop just because we graduate, or because we age. It is a continual journey. We learn whether we want to or not, so why not make the best of it? Learning who we are and what we can do is a life long adventure. I believe if we are open to that, we will never cease to surprise ourselves at our capacity to become a newer better version of ourselves... everyday. Take the action to learn, grow and define yourself anew everyday.

What "actions" will define you today?

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