“I am not what happened to me. I am what I choose to become.”
—Carl Jung
There’s so much power and aspiration in that statement. Who you become as a person is up to you—up to your imagination, your will, your determination, your choices.
Ever since I was a little girl, I’ve been fascinated by people’s life journeys. I’ve devoured hundreds of biographies and autobiographies, interviewed countless people from all walks of life—always intrigued by the way people negotiate their ups and the downs, the forks in their road, the hurdles they’ve faced. In other words, the choices they’ve made.
And what I’ve learned is this: No one’s life follows a linear path. No one’s life is devoid of mistakes, pain, and regret.
What I also know is that no one lives a perfect life. It doesn’t matter whether you were born into a famous family or not. No one is immune to some kind of struggle, whether it’s mental, emotional, physical, financial, or professional. Everyone has something to work through. And more often than not, that struggle is tough, scary, and lonely. But the good news is that each day gives us the opportunity to choose to begin anew.
So today, start where you are—not where you wish you were, but where you are.
I’m grateful for that realization, because I used to spend so much time beating myself up for choices I’d made that I thought were permanent—and regretting opportunities I was too scared to grab and thought would never come my way again. Or I deluded myself by focusing my attention only on an imagined future, fantasizing there would be a time when everything would magically be as I dream.
But I’ve learned that living in either the past or the future keeps me up in my head, out of reality, robbing me of the present.
So today, I choose to live in the present. My intention is to authentically be myself as I am today. I try to stay conscious of not judging myself and others. And what I’ve discovered is that all that time and energy I spent in the past and future I can now spend on my family, my friends, my purpose, and my mission—in other words, my actual life.
One of my favorite sayings is often attributed to Ralph Waldo Emerson: “What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us.”
So today, start where you are. The past is gone. The future isn’t here. This day offers each of us a chance to be the person we want to be. Not the person we wish we had been yesterday or want to be tomorrow, but the person we already are.
Dear God, I trust you will meet me right where I am. Help me to make choices that are good for me and those I love. Help me to become the person I’m meant to be. Help me to say and believe that today, I am enough and I am worthy. Help me to know that each day is a gift, and I can begin anew. Amen.