“The purpose of our lives is to give birth to the best which is within us.” – Marianne Williamson
And what’s best in us, I believe, is our humanity, compassion, capacity to get outside of ourselves and truly try to understand another. What’s best in us is our conscience–a healthy conscience. What’s best in us is our honesty–the courage it takes to be that raw and honest with ourselves.
“The first principle is that you must not fool yourself–and you are the easiest person to fool.” – Richard Feynman
This is the first principle of personal growth and self-awareness and the examined life–ceasing to deceive/hoodwink ourselves. Until we have learned to be honest like this with ourselves, we will never be capable of being truly honest with another, and we will never reach the ground of our authentic or core self. The first principle in real growth is this degree of fierce honesty with oneself–not just what we’re feeling or what we want, but why we want what we want and why we’re likely feeling what we’re feeling.
Until we have some durable sense of this, we’re asleep. We’re fooling ourselves, and we’re fooling others with our self–with our false self. We’re fooling ourselves most of all with our false self.
It’s quite an unpleasant dilemma to be in–to be so adept at fooling oneself that one can’t be sure when one isn’t fooling oneself.
The truth we most need to hear is the truth we least want to hear and face. Yet that’s the truth that will most help us to grow. In fact, being able to sit still long enough to actually hear that truth at all would marks a significant bit of growth.
The Places That Scare You 