Can I Preach It, if I Don't Live It?


authenticity integrity self-motivation warrior spirit writing

As you may know from reading my personal story, I was actually a pretty unhappy kid back in high school and college. I became an expert on motivating myself in order to survive. By studying Buddhism and positive psychology and applying them to my own life, I was able to develop myself into a reasonably confident, self-sufficient dude. Now, I share what I’ve learned in order to help you chase after the great dreams in your lives which require a lot of self-motivation and ambition.

Because I write about this stuff, you’d think that I’m always up and rearing to go, but the truth is I have plenty of down days. I think that is what makes me believable and enables me to maintain perspective. If I never had to apply my own techniques, they’d become pretty rusty and I wouldn’t be able to write about them very well.

On the other hand, is it really fair for me to be telling you to go out and change the world when I can’t even work up the energy to change out of my PJs?

I actually don’t think that it it okay for me to do that. This blog is one method I use for motivating myself. I’ve committed to writing about the Warrior Spirit, and part of my sense of integrity requires that I therefore live the Warrior Spirit. So whether you like it or not, you give me the encouragement to fight for what I believe in day after day. You are my inspiration (in a non-mushy way).

Self-motivation and personal quirks aside, I think that my advice can still be useful to you even if I don’t manage to live it every single day. In a way, it’s like my gymnastics coach. It had been a long time since he’d last practiced what he taught me, but he had the experience and the eye for coaching that let him convey the ideas effectively without having to be able to perform the skills.

Of course, he was once a very accomplished gymnast, so I think experience of what you’re teaching is important at some point. You have to have walked the same path at least once before in order to guide someone else along it.

I guess ultimately it comes down to you, my reader. If you find what I write to be useful, then read and share with your friends. If you think it’s all invalid because sometimes I don’t live up to my own call-to-arms, then that’s your choice.

Part of the Warrior Spirit is dealing with your own shortcomings. The true Warrior can fail, brush him or herself off, and get up to try again. It would be too easy to be perfect all the time. It is far more difficult to accept that you’re not perfect but to believe that you have worthwhile things to say despite that, and to say those things with conviction.

Anyway, now you know I’m not perfect (in case there was any doubt in your mind).

Thank you for reading! If you found this post inspiring, please share it with some friends, or on Twitter.

Fight on, Brave Warriors!

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