As soon as you trust yourself, you will know how to live. – Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Which path will get you to where you truly wish to go? When you trust yourself, and answer honestly, then you will know.
What does that mean?
Trust yourself? That is the crux of this quote. Of course we trust ourselves, don’t we? Or do we? How many of us have, at one point in time or another, chosen to imitate someone else, instead of being ourselves, trusting ourselves? What of the times we did what our parents wanted of us, rather than what we wanted, rather than trusting ourselves?
When you dig past all the ways you bury yourself, your needs, wants, and desires, and begin to listen to yourself, you begin to trust yourself. Once you can trust yourself, you can actually start to live your own life, for your own reasons.
That is what this quote is about. As you become more familiar with yourself and can trust yourself, your path will become more and more clear. Note that this will require absolute honesty with yourself, or you will go off on an ego trip, a pleasure chase, or a self-destructive crash.
Why is being honest with yourself important?
If you can’t trust yourself to be honest with yourself about your dreams, hopes, and ambitions, you’re in trouble. How are you going to chart a course to lasting satisfaction, and the life you dream about, if you don’t have an accurate map?
When you lie or mislead yourself regarding what you want in life, the map you draw for yourself, the map to get you to your dream destination, is flawed. Depending on the level and type of deception, you could end up headed in the wrong direction.
Do you want love, or just affection. Should it last a lifetime, or just the next hour? Can you see how just those two answers draw a very different map to a dream life? And the difference between them is the level of honesty and precision with which you answer yourself.
Where can I apply this in my life?
This makes a lot of sense if you consider how often you second guess yourself. I’m projecting here, I don’t know you, or how often you really do it, but most of the people I know do, so I’ll extrapolate and include you in the group.
Uncertainty leads to hesitation, and neither make for a very satisfying life. One thing people seem to need is some level of certainty. Even if it’s not exactly in the correct direction, having a direction seems important to most people.
So long as you are honest with yourself, and trust yourself to make the correct decisions, you can adjust your route as your life develops. You may find things didn’t work out as you expected, and abandon a particular method for arriving at your dream destination.
The location may not have changed, you may simply have decided the jungle was too dense, and gone back to try the hilly route. As long as you are being honest with yourself, and trusting yourself, you should eventually get to where you wish to be.
Take a moment and consider what actions help you to feel happiness? What things that you give help you feel fulfilled? What else can you think of that is pleasurable in the long term, not just for a moment? What things can you change in your life to better live your life?
What of the life you are presently living is something other than what leads you to life you dream about? They may be the dreams or ideals of someone else, dreams from a long time ago, or little white lies you told yourself the last time you thought about where you were going with your life.
What can you do to replace the old goals, the old paths or routes from here to your dream life, with goals and paths that are more useful to you? What changes will help you enjoy life more, and help yourself as well as others?
When you can answer those questions honestly and trust yourself to take the right path and make the correct decisions, you will know how to live. It may take a couple of tries to get yourself on a better path towards a better future, but keep at it, eventually you will know how to live.
Then the only thing left to do is to figure out how to live that life as completely and fully as humanly possible. That’s an exercise I leave to you, dear reader. Don’t wait until it’s perfect, get started right now!
From: Twitter, @awakeningaimee
confirmed at : http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/j/johannwolf133870.html
Photo by josemanuelerre
Happy Birthday to Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, born 28 August 1749.
Hey, please never take this down. This page has been saved in my bookmarks for years now and I always look at it when my life is spiraling (like now.) I never actually took the time to tell you how much I appreciate this post, so I’m doing it now. Reading this always brings me a wave of calm. That everything will be okay. I just wanted to let you know that. Thank you.
The quote is a single sentence surely intended to encourage trusting the Lord’s judgement rather than your own? That’s why It is such an absurd idea.
The quote I was discussing has nothing to do with the Lord’s judgement. I don’t understand your point. Apples and oranges from my view point. Please advise.
You were discussing “As soon as you trust yourself …………….” This encourages self belief. I was inviting your opinion on the idea expressed in Proverb 3.5 which points towards a trust in the Lord rather than relying on your own judgement. You think they deal with completely different aspects of life. Fair enough. But I still think the proverb is absurd no matter which aspect of life it refers to.
Yes, I consider trust and belief to be different things.
So what do you say to those who rely on “Trust in The Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. Proverbs 3.5 ?
I would say that they are comparing apples to oranges. The quotes have nothing to do with each-other, and deal with completely different aspects of life.