This quote and lesson for me, has been a reminder to not only be more open in listening and communicating with others for better understanding each other, but also to be a powerful reminder in understanding myself and not getting attached to having others understand my own journey.
Not everyone is going to get it. Maybe they won’t ever get it. Do not allow that to deter you from following your heart, your intuition, your Soul's longing for freedom or whatever it is that you feel misunderstood with.
You need to honour that for yourself until you fully understand yourself.
Trust that, eventually, you will be understood or realize it doesn’t matter as much as you believed.
I know how frustrating it can be to not feel understood. Trying to convince people and trying to make people see what you’re seeing. It can be lonely. But what I’ve learned, is it cannot be forced.
We as humans, can only see from the perspective that we are choosing to see it. It’s the frequency that each of us are tuned in to.
We really need to trust that the right people will understand when their time is right. We have to practise patients.
I made the mistake of going all in, trying to change my family’s perspective. It created a lot of disconnect and them thinking I was going crazy and a lot of heartache and misunderstanding on my part. I felt very lonely and often wondered if I’d ever feel understood.
I made a brave decision to choose myself. I worked on myself. I payed attention to what my soul was trying to say. It didn’t mean I left my family or gave any less attention. I just put myself on the priority list too.
When I began, there was a void, like something was missing and I knew if I didn’t identify exactly what that was, I would never find the inner peace and happiness I was longing for.
I had it all. I had no reason to be “unhappy.” A perfect little family, I was young, had a career started, 2 healthy children, a husband that loved me and supportive family that loved me. The “normal” thing would have been for me to just settle, be content and be grateful for what I had.
I was grateful. But I decided I wanted both, I wanted my perfect little life and I also wanted so much more. I don’t feel guilty about that either.
Just because others can’t see the vision I see, or what could be, didn’t mean I was going to back down from it.
It was confusing for me too. I had no solid groundwork, of exactly what that thing was I was going after. I just listened and followed the path.
Maybe a strong intuition, I don’t know, but I’m grateful for it. It makes my life more interesting and more of a journey. Way less predictable, but it has become a preference.
The Universe can serve up better than we can sometimes dream up on our own. Our limiting beliefs cause there to be a cap on things we dream up.
If you find yourself in a place of feeling misunderstood, by family, friends or maybe even by your “old self”. Know you are growing into something bigger and better. Continue to understand your own journey. Give it the attention it needs to grow. Allow for it to evolve. Things will fall into place and the bigger picture will eventually be understood.
We are accustomed to seeking permission outside of ourselves first. We look to society, our family, past circumstances for the permission to do things and to feel understood.
The most brave act you can do right now is give yourself permission to follow that pull you may be feeling, whatever it may be, towards freedom, a career change, creating content on steemit, or a new perspective on life.
I’ve spend a significant amount of time seeking to understand myself, my options, and new found concepts that I felt to be true deep down.
I am ok with being misunderstood in some of my beliefs and actions. It’s a part of it. I trust that someday, others will see the bigger picture, and will begin to “get it” and maybe even fully understand, or at least be more accepting.
That is all we can ask for.
Trying to make others understand is the kind of shit that WILL drive you crazy. Don’t consume yourself with it. Let it go.
You’ll begin to notice you’ll attract the “right” people in your life, that already “get it”. The need to make people understand becomes less important to you. As long as you have a few people, a community, a tribe that feels like you belong, it’s all good.
One of the biggest things I didn’t realize when starting out on an entrepreneurial path, a personal development path and a spiritual path, is how lonely it was going to be.
But when I realized, I didn’t need permission or acceptance, I let go. Feeling a bit lonely in that area of my life, was ok. It wasn’t going to be a forever thing, it was just part of the process.
I began to really understand that quote on a new level; “Seek first to understand, then to be understood.”
It’s not our job to make others understand. Our job, is to understand ourselves and our own path, and leave the rest up to the Universe.
If one follows the essence of that quote, life would be so much simpler!
Awesome post! Thank you for this @tressareid :)
Awesome
Nice wise words sir. @tressareid. I believe that lessor no expectations is better.
Communication also help you to be understood when action don't speak well.. And if they don't understand then screw them. They are possibly incapable of reasoning on your level.
Thank you, @rabiujaga :)
More ink to your quill
Beautiful post. We all need encouragement in this pursuit, and I believe as you said, the most important thing is to practice patience and keep chipping away at what it is you are good at. Don't worry about anything else besides the process of improving and evolving.
Yes! We can only control our own actions, understood by others or not, its our own path. Thanks :)
Maybe it comes with time (middle age), or maybe it's something else. I just know I pretty much embraced the idea that I will probably always be misunderstood in some way to all kinds of people.
Maybe that is human nature, to not understand anything outside of our own worldview until something crashes that worldview. It's too bad really that it might take that to be open to new ideas or actual truth even, but it probably will.
Again, I think time helps to overcome those kinds of obstacles. We can insulate ourselves for a long time, but eventually small things get through the seep holes and the next thing you know, we're considering things we might have even dreamed of doing before. The opposite is also true. We wouldn't dream of doing things we've done in the past. I've been experiencing both at the same time!
Stephen Covey is a great person to quote, and the quote is one of his best. Thanks for this.
I agree, time and experience will help prove that we will always be misunderstood on some level, and we become more accustomed to it. It really sucks that it sometimes takes years for realizations like this. I think focusing on self- awareness and your own path is key in not getting hung up on what others' perspectives are. Thank you for your comment :)
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Good post. As I usually advice other great bloggers make them as a guide for easy searching. I know steemit works with trending but building a good base content and easy search will be very useful for future readers. It also should benefeit the whole community and steem value IMO.
This kind of social network plus (micro)blogging should be the natural substitue for old (and messy) forum groups. Lot of knowledge and Love lost under gigas of buried forums... we need to find better workflows to keep those useful and bit more alive (maybe dtube as you pointed in the other post?). It will be a shame if content like this can’t reach the most possible crowd... so let’s do something to improve that!
Blessings
David