When we commit to our personal development and take responsibility for our life choices I can guarantee sooner rather than later judgement and comparisons will raise their ugly heads and bring our progress to a temporary halt. It’s like we just get started and move in the right direction and then slam the brakes on and bring everything to a grinding halt. Unfortunately lacking confidence and belief in our progress we look for feedback and mistakenly believe judgement and comparisons are the real deal and a good indicator of our progress.
In reality, the last thing we need is misplaced judgement or inappropriate comparisons that serve no purpose other than to confuse us and rob us of desire to continue with our development. Self assessment is a wonderful thing when we are qualified to do so, but when you lack the life experience knowledge and understanding to do so, we tend to revert to judging our progress based on other peoples standards and values, and making comparisons based on our perception of the ‘’ideal’’. Not knowing the details of another person’s journey we are totally ignorant of the hardships endured or the courage and commitment required to rise each day and keep moving forward. Regardless of the faltering step or the giant leap forward distance is a poor guide to personal progress, rather its the nature of the steps and the life experience contained within their gait that defines our progress and development.
For comparisons to have value and meaning they need to be like for like. The Apple is a beautiful fruit but it’s not an Orange and so such comparisons are both time consuming and meaningless. The same rule of comparison must also apply when we judge our work or progress in relation to the results of others. We overvalue their work whilst undervaluing our own, it’s like the new student comparing their first assignment to the work contained in the course textbooks or the work of their tutor with thirty or forty years experience. They both have access to the same twenty six letters of the alphabet, but it’s the way the letters are used to construct a piece of work that separates them, but each has value and meaning in their own right. Negative comparisons are a pointless exercise but one with the potential to destroy confidence and cut short the development of real skill and ability.
We are all a work in progress and no one comes into this world or leaves it the finished article. We evolve and grow depending on the environment we find ourselves in, and every great achievement on this planet began life as an idea and a single line drawn as part of the creative process.
Knowledge and understanding and the life experience it brings never comes to us complete so the creative process is never trouble free or straight forward, but the true artisan learns to look beyond judgement and meaningless comparisons and with patience and a clear vision of what they wish to achieve in time to turn obstacles to their advantage, the stumbling blocks into stepping stones enabling them to reach ever higher.
Article by Phillip Hawkins
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A Reiki practitioner since 1999, Phillip started teaching Reiki in 2000 and using those skills and abilities he has spent the majority of the last seventeen years working with a wide range of social and educational needs including Autism and ADHD. Working with addicts dependent on alcohol and drugs, people whose lives were extremely violent and abusive, and others who had to deal with severe mental health issues. This has enabled him to work extensively in the private sector, schools, colleges, education and care in the community, the prison service and psychiatric units.
In 2016, Phillip decided to semi-retire from full-time employment to concentrate on developing his career as a published author and the setting up of his Reiki personal development programme at the Chilton Community College.
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