Where Fulfillment & Answers Are Found

By Greg Fullerton

If I could teach anyone one thing it would be this: Personal fulfillment and the answers to your most pressing question are found within yourself.

For fear of being wrong, we look to everyone and everything outside ourselves to find these.

We trust our peers’ and family’s perceptions of ourselves more than our own.

People tell us we’re stupid or weak or vain and we believe them. People tell us we should give up and we do.

People tell us we’re not good enough and we droop our heads and think, “They’re right.”

We’re inspired by ideas, but market research tells us they won’t work, so we don’t pursue them.

We feel stuck and trapped by circumstances and we beg other people to tell us how we can progress.

This focus on external people and circumstances comes from two sources: irresponsibility, and a failure to recognize and trust in our own genius.

We either believe that the world owes us something, or we believe that we have nothing to offer the world.

The latter is possibly more destructive than is the feeling of entitlement.

Let these quotes wash over you and cleanse your misguided thinking that you’re not good enough:

“We carry within us the wonders we seek without us.” -Sir Thomas Browne

“As long as anyone believes that his ideal and purpose is outside him, that it is above the clouds, in the past or in the future, he will go outside himself and seek fulfillment where it cannot be found. He will look for solutions and answers at every point except where they can be found—in himself.” -Erich Fromm

“A man should learn to detect and watch that gleam of light which flashes across his mind from within, more than the luster of the firmament of bards and sages…Trust thyself: every heart vibrates to that iron string.” -Ralph Waldo Emerson

To reach your full potential you must embrace your genius. Until you recognize that you have value to offer, you will never create significant value in the world.

Learn from books, mentors, history, and events, but ultimately trust in and rely upon yourself for answers. This requires that you spend introspective time.

Enjoy the material comforts of the world, but understand that true fulfillment can only be found within yourself.

The old Latin phrase “Temet nosce,” meaning “Know thyself,” isn’t enough. You must also trust and believe in yourself.