Terry Storch Dispatch 05.2021

Dispatch 05.2021

I have not read this book, but this excerpt to me says it all—Death: The final stage of growth. Dying to self. Dying to worldly ambition. Dying to an unhealthy desire for recognition. Dying to the internal hunger to be right. Dying to the prison of expecting perfection. It’s a very interesting paradox. With this mindset, we realize that death produces freedom, and as the author shares, beauty is the outcome.

I’m currently reading a fantastic book by Peter Enns called How The Bible Actually Works. I have become a big fan of Pete's work, and really enjoy his podcast The Bible for Normal People. In the book, I highlighted and circled a sentence that says, “Show me a person of faith who knows herself well, and I will show you a true spiritual mentor—a truly wise person.” How true and simple! Self-awareness is the beginning of the beautification process.

In this journey called life, I have become more aware and more comfortable with who I am and who I am not. Over time, I’ve learned my triggers, my go tos, my strengths, and my weaknesses. I am thankful for Life.Church, which is where I have worked for the last fifteen years and where self-awareness and personal development has been a massive part of the leadership culture. Self-awareness is a critical first step of the growth process.

But, self-awareness is just the starting place on the growth journey. You see, we can be very self-aware and still be extremely dysfunctional and off-center. Self-awareness must then turn into self-actualization, which is where you take self-awareness and put it into practice. Ironically, knowing your strengths and weaknesses and not actually doing anything with that knowledge doesn’t make one bit of difference.

Another excellent resource I have learned a lot on this topic is Richard Rohr’s fantastic book, Falling Upward. Rohr has outstanding language that really helped me understand these two phases of life that we all walk through. Here is a perfect quote to sum this up and put a nice bow on it. 

“The human ego prefers anything, just about anything, to falling, or changing, or dying. The ego is that part of you that loves the status quo – even when it's not working. It attaches to past and present and fears the future.” 

― Richard Rohr

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Things I am enjoying learning about right now.
 

Polygon / Madic Network - The Internet of Blockchains
 

Modern Finance - Crypto Podcast hosted by Kevin Rose
 

Dark Energy…the mind bending reality that the universe continues to expand

Who you want to become tomorrow starts with who you are being today. - Srinivas Rao