Beautifully put. I've been living that life for awhile and have never been happier and more content inside my own skin.

Working on it all the time and feeling good at the moment!

Be careful what you ask for - you may get it.

Aside from the cliche, Step 1, in my opinion, is to really think through what it is that you want. Just that process will help you get there.

I think what you said is great! It's very important to examine those ideas and beliefs you were given, and to decide what you think is true or real. Everybody has the right to find their own identity, to define themselves, and to live life on their own terms. Right now, this is all stuff I'm just beginning to understand, but I feel doing these things could help me be a lot happier, and I'm excited about it!

Thanks for an excellent post

Fantastic. If more people would let go of everything for a little, step back and determine who/what they really are, then decide what they really want, there wuld be a lot more content people in the world. Too often we pursue goals they are not of our own choosing, we just think we want them.

There's SOME truth to that but I would not literally say you can "will your life to be what you want" or "create your own reality". That is patently untrue. Even if it were, you'd have to have certain basic prerequisites to pull it off, a certain amount of will, a certain amount of intelligence, and so forth.

In my life, the reality I tried very hard to create, and devoted a lot of will and intention to, didn't materialize. Instead, I experienced all sorts of stunning, unsought-for success in a completely unrelated area of life, and experienced bitter disappointment and outright tragedy in the area where I attempted to realize my DESIRED reality. And I've seen this happen to other people also.

To be honest, I consider this hermetic, "as above, so below" thinking to be rather pernicious, because it often relieves folks of the bother of being empathetic toward others, because after, all, they created their own reality, so it's on them. They could un-create / re-create it, so they don't need my help. It gets particularly bad when the notion is applied to physical and mental health issues.

Overall my experience has been that the connection between effort / intention and outcomes is flaky at best, and involves a good deal more luck than people want to admit to, as they'd prefer to bask in the credit for their native brilliance when things go well.

My father allways said "at the end of the day review what you have done, pat yourself on the back for having done the best you can that day for you are the only one responsible for your self respect and if you have been truthful no one can disagree with your opinion because it isn't their place. They can only say how it affected them."

I was only talking with my good friend on the other side of the world a few hours ago and he made the wonderful observation "I have reached the age when I welcome both positive and negative comment about myself, probably negative more than positive. The negative gives magnificent pause to re-evaluate myself in light of the criticism and if necessary modify my being. And I think to myself 'what a beautiful thing that person has just done for me'!"

You can not do it without your own identity... priority One. Congratulations.