One person that really inspires and motivates me with his messages is Gary Vaynerchuck.
If you don't know him, follow him right now HERE, HERE and HERE. It's ok, I'll wait.
...
You're back? Good!
Meet Gary:
Gary is this No-Bull-Shit-New-York-Entrepreneur. You either love him or hate him. And when you love him, you will probably at times hate him, because his messages can sometimes feel like a kick in the... uhm face. But hey, truth hurts.
I've been following him for a couple of years now and there are a lot of lessons I've learned from him that I've implementet in my personal life. One of Gary's key messages lately is "selfawareness".
In my experience of my day to day life I can be so focused on who I want to be, or what people I would like to be like. This really can be crippling and rob me from a lot of creativity. And actually remove myself from who I really am or am supposed to be.
I'm a creative person with a lot of interests. When I find something that inspires me, my head fills itself with hundreds of ideas of how I could implement this in new projects. The same I've experienced when meeting successful people. They inspire me, they're in a place I'd like to be in, so I focus on wanting to be like them.
I know this sounds pathetic, but the reason I'm not afraid to talk about this is that I know I'm not the only one.
Right? be honest. (Don't let me hanging..)
Well, here came Gary's sucker punch that really opened my eyes for me:
DO YOU KNOW WHAT YOU SUCK AT?
My reaction:
Excuse me?! I'm constantly working on bettering myself. I'm moving forward! I'm not going to look at the things that go bad or what I might suck at!
But...
What if I really suck at some things I invest a lot of energy in...
Self awareness is just really being honest with yourself. Don't lie to yourself.
Why are you doing the things you do?
Do you want to be successful? Great!
But what does this mean for you?
Is the thing you're chasing really what success is, or might it be something else?
I've spent a lot of energy working on being someone I am not. Always looking outward and never looking inward on what I have, who I am, my own unique talents. Becoming self aware is being honest about what you suck at, so you can truly know what you're good at. I believe everyone has unique talents and a unique way of looking at the world. If you stick to these talents, your own DNA, you can truly excel.
It's like trying letting a palm tree grow outside in Alaska. You'll have to do your darn best to keep it alive and let it grow even a tiny bit. And you know, when winter comes, this palm tree will die.
If, instead you grow a pine tree in Alaska, it will grow very well. The DNA of the tree belongs to the habitat it's growing in. And even when the winter comes it will survive.
There is two sides on this medal. Accept your shortcomings, so you don't waste energy and get frustrated. And discover your strengths so you can enjoy what you're really good at, and get even better at it.
When I first heard this message I didn't want to think about it. Even thinking about something I might be bad at made me feel like a failure. "I keep trying until I'm good at it!" But in the end this would be the way I would entirely fail because there would never be any focus. In the end is was ok to let these shortcomings go because my strengths would completely replace them.
Accept your shortcomings, stick to your DNA,
And allow yourself to be great at what you CAN do,
by accepting the thing you CAN'T do.
I started to share my thoughts and stories on Steemit because I have a deep passion to inspire people and make them think. I've always found inspiration in stories of other people's experiences and I love to share my own experiences on what I discover in my life. I hope some people might find some inspiration in thema and will help them to go further in life.
If you liked this story please consider upvoting and following me. It would really help me to build a community of like minded people that motivate each other. Also I really love to hear your thoughts in the comments!
I wish you well!
Love,
Koen Folkerts
