19 Nov Chamber of Sovereign Mastery #1; ‘WHO AM I?’
‘Who on earth do you think you are?’ – no really, on this earth on which you live and move and have your being, I am asking you the question; ‘who on earth do you think you are?’
– The question is relevant because; if you don’t know the answer to this question, at least for yourself, you leave yourself open to other people’s ideas and conclusions about who you are – or worse; what they want you to be, with all that that entails with all their agendas and considerations concerning what they could possibly use a man for today. ‘Oh, I need a settee moved, I wonder if I can enrol a spare man’, – Ah, I’m depressed and I’m living a fucked up life, let me find a man to off load all my troubles unto, and so on – and we end up becoming the depositories of other peoples energy, or our energy gets used to fuel other peoples missions because there is no sense of self-knowledge and purpose driving our own enterprise, and nature abohors a vacuum.
So this line of questioning is aimed at stopping you in your tracks, it’s aimed at causing you to dig deep and to confront the unconfronted in your life.
Who do men say that I am? It is alleged an ancient prophet once asked one of his followers. And indeed, who others say we are is often the only parameter by which we have given ourselves permission to be defined. And this means our conclusions about ourselves are anchored – externally. – Anchored, in the minds of others with all their lack of conclusion about their own identities.
We must do this work for ourselves if we intend to sit in the driving seat of our own lives, and steer our ships to the port for which we eventually hope to see the shore.
Of course people jump to conclusions, you’ll have done it yourself. You add one and one and make four – it’s how we get through life. But a clearer perspective on ourselves is surely our right, and not just a luxury for more enlightened Souls.
It’s been said that Socrates enquired of that Syibil of Old the Oracle of Delphi concerning the obtaining of wisdom, and in response she spoke those instructive words which resonate through history with as much potency today as they held way back then; – ‘Man Know Thyself!’
Not necessarily an easy task. Certainly not as simple as it looks at face value. Don’t worry, I am aware of what I am suggesting. However, I can’t shirk from the responsibility of stressing the importance of this imperative. To know ourselves, to get clear about certain matters which make up who we are and to familiarise ourselves with as much information and data on the subject of ourselves as possible serves to furnish us with a road map. A road map which we can mentally refer back to when establishing our sovereign right to exist without apology or justification.
Also, so that when we find ourselves presented with options which could compromise the integrity of Our Soul’s Unique Journey, we can look squarely at the offer on the table and say; ‘I’m sorry, but I know who I am, and I know where I’m going and that which you’re trying to offer me is not worth, my time, my energy or my money! Thank you, I’ll be on my way’.
Knowing ourselves and what we are about enables us to live with intention and create a destiny for ourselves aligned with our values and reflective of our true and genuine identity as opposed to falling victim to the fate and happenstance of circumstances, left wondering; ‘how on earth did I get here?’
Psychologists talk about an internal or external locus of control and how we all have an ‘either’, ‘or’ of these two ‘locuses of control operative within our lives. PersonalPsycology.com says of this quoting Rotter (1966); ‘If we place the locus of control externally, we are likely to blame the outcome on fate, luck, or happenstance. If we place the locus of control internally, we are likely to believe our own actions determine the outcome’.
When we have a deeper knowledge of self, a heightened self-awareness we empower ourselves via this knowledge to enable ourselves to make better decisions and modify our behaviour in order to achieve our desired objectives as opposed to feeling powerless in the face of external circumstances which often appear random and unrelated until we recognise the patterns or have the insight that the common denominator in all of our life circumstances is ourselves.
I’m not trying to plonk the weight of blame squarely at your feet; – a wise man once said ‘blame causes depression’. But understand, whenever we blame others for where we find ourselves this action also serves to further disempower us. Remember, we are not powerless, we are powerful!
We have to recognise that ultimately the only person who can do anything about our circumstances is ourselves. And this is exciting because if we see the opportunity being presented to us by acknowledging this point of view, it is a massively empowering perspective which entirely removes the position of – victim – from our identity.
Shaving off your edge is not going to be to your advantage in the marketplace of life, not if you’re planning to go from surviving to thriving.
The 12 Chambers of The Idea of a Man™ starts by asking the question we are asking in this article; – ‘Who am I?’, we then ask; – ‘Where do I fit?’ and of course the next question must be; ‘How do I go from surviving to thriving’.
After that we’ll look at the areas of business, finances and re-creation to help us navigate our Idea of a Man™ in the marketplace before mastering our Idea of a Man™ in our intimate relationships, our family life, and in our friendships. Having got a handle on this we are going to move on to explore more existential matters. Matters which you’ll notice are weaved throughout all the other Chambers. So we’ll explore Spirituality – Practical Spirituality of course, as well as discovering how we can deepen our relationship with our Souls and our Bodies.
On the Menu on The Idea of a Man™ website you’ll see the 12 Chambers listed. My aim is to become a Subject Matter Expert (SME) in these 12 areas in order to help coach men who want to get a deeper handle on any or all of these areas within their lives, and also in order to create meaningful and helpful content around these 12 subjects in order to enable those who resonate with this message to ground more deeply in their awareness and knowledge of themselves. The Idea of a Man™ and The 12 Chambers provides a blueprint to help navigate the journey of living a life of purpose – on purpose.
On this page you will find resources and courses to help you ask and answer the question; ‘Who am I?’ Therefore, going forward as I create content around the subject of self-discovery and identity it will get posted here, so feel free to bookmark this page if this is a journey you’re embarking on and feel free to share your feedback, comments and conclusions with me and other fellow travellers.
I’d love to hear from you, so feel free to connect in the comments or via the social media links throughout the site. And don’t hesitate to like, subscribe and share any of my content which you find useful.
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