Stake A Claim 2/2 ~ A friends thoughts continued

Our unhappiness comes from not staying true to who we are. Your focus should be on you. My focus should be me. If we kept our focus where it belonged instead of trying to fix and change others, then we wouldn't have half the issues that we have. The minute we look for approval outside ourselves, then the trouble begins. Because we are putting our values and worth outside of ourselves and into the hands of others. So here's an example: Two people live on the same street. One goes out and plants flowers and bushes and trees because they love beauty and they love to garden and they love the smell of the earth and the feeling that they get from planting and watering seeds and bringing them to life. It's very pure and it's very rewarding. They don't do it for any other reason than the sheer enjoyment that they get from doing it. The other, goes out and plants flowers and bushes and trees, and looks up and down the street to see how they rate and compare to the rest of their neighbours and when they can say that their house looks the best of anyone's on the street, then they feel good. Now they've both done the same thing with the same result as the first person, but instead of it stopping with the gardening and feeling the joy in doing that, the joy becomes very conditional on the approval of others and the feeling or superiority that it brings. See where I'm headed with this. They both do it for a reward: the reward is beauty and enjoyment on the one hand, and the reward is being able to impress others, on the other hand. One of these two is living a lie. One of these two has by-passed the inner world and created a purely external facade. It's not about the journey with these people. It's all about the reward at the end. How you get to that reward is every bit as important as the reward itself. So with these people, they create the illusion of being someone or something, but that's all it is ... smoke and mirrors. There is no root and no depth. They don't do it for any other reason than show and reward. Given enough time, the facade falls away and the truth is revealed. These people eventually get trapped in their own lie and they live very lonely lives. Only time separates truth from lies and only if people are willing to believe it. That is why, if you live authentically then your truth is the truth. It proves itself. The truth is, we all look the same, it's difficult to distinguish the difference between those living lives that are authentic and those living a false life. And as much as it may burn our ass to see the ''the liars'' getting away with their shit, it is not our place to correct them because when we do, we are doing it for the reward of proving them wrong and ourselves right. Our job is not to be a bit player in their story, but to remain firm in our own authenticity and tell our own story otherwise, we become just an echo of them.