Be an eccentric

Be an eccentric. Be in love with life and love to experience what few ever have. Learning new things is the payment received for investing in new experiences. New experiences bring growth. Thrive on growth because growth keeps an active mind. An active mind is an open mind. An open mind is the best tool to have in overcoming obstacles. It breaks paradigms, and breaking paradigms to overcome obstacles is the surest way to feel good.



With experience often comes suffering, but we need to see this suffering as that which helps us to appreciate what we have been through. There is great satisfaction in this view of suffering. Don’t fear the pain of suffering, but don’t seek it either. Accept it as it comes and know that within it lies another lesson. Life is the lesson. Learn it well. You might feel good, even as you are suffering.


Equally important to personal growth is seeking the opportunity to share your growth, your experience, with others. This is, perhaps, the greatest gift you can give to others; and giving is the best expression of your being alive. Give everything of yourself without reserve. You can never run out. The more of yourself you give to others, the more you become. A part of you is carried on in all whose lives you have touched, both now and in generations to come. Remember this when you are dealing with others. Always give the very best of yourself.


As giving to others is important, acceptance of others must be included. The world is full of individuals. Each individual is another world in the making. Grant each person the sovereignty to be his or herself. This is the true meaning of giving. As our world is revealed to us in its own time, so is the reality of every other individual. You cannot make a flower bloom before its time, and you cannot keep that flower from blooming without killing it.


We are all on a journey made unique for each one of us. This is where it all comes back to having an open mind. Do not judge. Keep your mind open, and keep on growing in your own right. Finally, keep on sharing yourself, but with acceptance of those whose experiences are still different from your own.


Suffering is not a good thing but neither is it as bad as we may believe. It is a part of life. This part of life is something I don’t believe any person has been able to completely avoid. The amount of suffering seems to be related in some way to how intensely we relate to the essence of life or how intensely we are searching for that essence.


Those who have suffered the most in history have also been blessed with having custody of an internal peace that is nothing less than enviable. What these souls have left behind has been noted as pure love, and they have given us hope for a better life. We look to these people for inspiration.


On the contrary, those who seem to have suffered little personally tend to leave behind a legacy of torment and shame. There seems to be nothing enviable in their ways other than the temporary power many of them had experienced before their fall. It is easy to see the internal conflict they experienced along with this false power, even more so toward the end of their reign.


The majority of us fall between these two extremes. We will neither experience great personal struggle leading to a profound peace nor will we seem to fall into a life of inborn power that ends with disgrace. We live our mundane lives very superficially—without risks, with no threat of great loss, and no chance for significant personal growth. Is this a bad thing? I doubt that it is. If one experiences no calling, that one is content to simply be. Period. For some, perhaps, unknown reason, that person is not yet ready for this journey of self-search.


If one is to receive a calling, he or she will be made aware of this calling in the proper time. Like a flower opening up, we can do nothing to change this timing. It seems the moment one receives this calling is the moment one begins to truly suffer.


Growing up and leaving our home behind can bring with it its own kind of pain. We accept this pain as we know there lies greater opportunities beyond. The whole of life is based on transition, and as with any transition comes something given up to receive something new. Understand this. Suffering really comes down to our attachment to that which we must let go. It is the sense of blockage of that which must be let to flow. Life is fluid.


If you are called to do something great with your life. Step forward with no thought to what you are leaving behind and know that you are coming in to something so much better. Be humble in your present stance and bold in your decision.



Jeffrey Brandt

Author of Close Your Eyes to Find Your Way: A Guide to Discovering Your Higher Self.






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