To Know Yourself Is Freedom, To Change Yourself Is Mastery
I painted a phrase that has stayed with me longer than I expected.
To Know Yourself Is Freedom. To Change Yourself Is Mastery.
You have to get very comfortable with yourself to understand the first half.
To know yourself.
Sounds simple enough.
Remove the excuses.
Understand your strengths.
Understand your vulnerabilities.
Understand what excites you.
Understand what drains you.
Understand your value.
There is freedom in that.
The moment you stop pretending to be someone else, many of life’s decisions become easier.
You can move freely.
The second half is trickier.
To change yourself is mastery.
Not because change is impossible.
Because change is uncomfortable.
It requires action.
Discipline.
Humility.
Patience.
The willingness to release identities that once felt permanent.
That’s the difficult part.
Most people spend their lives trying to become themselves.
Far fewer spend time becoming someone new.
Real change requires examining the programming you’ve accumulated over a lifetime.
Childhood.
Adolescence.
Adulthood.
The stories you’ve told yourself.
The stories others told you.
The habits you’ve inherited.
The beliefs you’ve carried.
Mastery can arrive at any age.
But it only arrives when you’re willing to evolve.
I’ve spent much of my life evolving.
Corporate.
Artist.
Traveler.
Curator.
Writer.
Mother.
Each version of myself felt permanent while I was living it.
None of them were.
The more time I spend on earth, the more convinced I become that mastery isn’t about controlling the world around us.
It’s about maintaining the ability to evolve within it.
To update your thinking.
To abandon beliefs that no longer serve you.
To refine your habits.
To become more aligned with the person you’re capable of being.
Not once.
Repeatedly.
Perhaps that’s why the phrase has stayed with me.
The first half requires honesty.
To know yourself is freedom.
The second half requires courage.
To change yourself is mastery.