Waking Up to Choose Our Highest Selves

The person you’ve been doesn’t need to be the one you remain. This is a story about waking up to choose the highest version of ourselves. Because that’s all it is — a choice.

I’m introverted.
I’m shy.
I’m a lone wolf.
I’m impatient.
I’m analytical.
I’m a man of science.
I’m forgetful.
I’m unable to focus.
I’m forever chasing money.
I’m a frenetic overthinker.
I’m not creative.
I’m not a real writer.
I’m not a real entrepreneur.
I’m serious and somber.
I’m frustrated.

These are the labels I’ve used to chronicle who I am.

I’ve rooted in them for decades. Repeating them, incessantly — to myself, friends, family, coworkers, and strangers, until I fully embodied them.

As negative as they might appear on the surface, they’ve served an important role — they’ve kept me safe while I’ve been asleep. They’ve provided shelter, while I chose to remain small. They allowed cover for me to shrink within the shadows — not yet ready to thrive in the light.

You see, these are the labels of a child. An eight-year-old, who developed his sense of self from his surrounding environment.

While still innocent and awake, he understood life as it was meant — everyone living free, connected, and aligned with their highest selves. But, confused, he watched everyone exist exactly the opposite: friends, siblings, parents — adults and children alike — all living small, separate, and misaligned, so as to, somehow, satisfy those fragile others around them.

Afraid to break from society’s norms, he, too, practiced dimming himself to make others feel safe. He shaped his thoughts, feelings, and actions based on the fears of others. And in doing so, he went to sleep, losing himself to the frightened, fractured world around him.

That’s been my story. Until now. Until realizing that I’d been asleep.

As I wake up, I remember that it was all a dream… A story I stepped into a long time ago, but am choosing to rewrite. A persona I invented but am ready to part with.

I’m remembering that my thoughts, feelings, and actions are entirely my own. My life, my work, my words, my ideas, my emotions. The space I occupy. How I express myself. Who I spend time with. It’s my story that I get to author. A story that, this time, I’ll write in alignment with my heart.

Because everything that makes up my being is not only mine to choose but has a higher purpose than that once scared eight-year-old gave himself permission to reach for. How could he have known to?

No one ever told him that he gets to decide.
No one ever told him that he is his own creator.
No one ever told him that he could love himself, and in doing so, be a light to all around him.

Not because they didn’t love him, but because they were just as confused and afraid. They didn’t know any better. They were doing the best they could.

And so I had to wake myself up. I had to learn to interpret the messages the universe was serving — not as challenges happening to me, but for me. I had to experience pain as an invitation to let go of living small so that I could rise up and return to alignment with my highest self.

As I wake up, I’m remembering how unimaginably limitless I am. How much light and love I have. How grateful I am for all I have. And how lucky I am to be able to share it with others.

And as I transform, I’m allowing myself new labels of who I am becoming:

I’m larger than life.
I’m the center of my community.
I’m patient.
I’m heart-centered.
I’m brilliant.
I’m living in complete abundance.
I’m decisive.
I’m playful and happy.
I’m filled with confidence.
I’m grateful.
I’m at peace.

These labels are just as much who I am, as well as who I’ve always been. I just had to remember.

And you?

Who will you become again when you wake back up?

Waking up others around you

The truth is, everyone must choose to wake up on their own time and terms. For me, that looked like hitting rock bottom and having nowhere else to go.

On my way down, I was fortunate to meet guides & teachers that modeled their highest selves. In doing so, they planted seeds my subconscious needed to begin waking up. Thank you. I love you. ❤️

And so that’s why I’m writing these articles. Because I feel called to. Because it’s my light for others.

If you received my light today, consider helping it reach someone else by tapping the clap 👏 icon below. Thank you. 🙏🏼