Putting yourself on the chopping block: part I

I'VE been meaning to write this post but have been putting it off because I wasn't sure I could find the words to express my feelings.

So the reason I named this blog, Julie's chopping block, is not because it's going to be about cooking, but more as a metaphor for achieving true success and happiness.

Oprah Winfrey once said that: 

"You will find true success and happiness if you have only one goal.  There really is only one, and that is this: To fulfill the highest, most truthful expression of yourself as a human being.  You want to max out your humanity by using your energy to lift yourself up, your family, and the people around you....'Don't ask yourself what the world needs.  Ask yourself what makes you come alive and go do that, because what the world needs is people who have come alive.'"

I think her words captures the essence of what I am feeling.  You have to put yourself "out there" on the "chopping block" where you will be laid bare before the world, before even yourself, completely open, transparent and vulnerable to be judged, tested, even ridiculed, laughed at.  It'll be at times an agonizing journey, but only then, only when you are willing to put yourself out there on the chopping block are you truly fulfilling "the highest, most truthful expression of yourself."

As humans, we are all born with curiosity, which is truly a great heavenly gift that grants us the ability to create.  I believe this is the secret to true happiness and success: the act of creation, which is the most intimate and true expression of your soul.  But unfortunately, our society slowly stumps out this natural gift and so by the time we are adults, we have been conditioned to conform, to follow instructions, to essentially be cogs in a machine.

We shun our natural curiosity and let our ability to create wither away as we inundate our lives with the activity of consumption.  We gladly sit in front of the TV for hours on end, as oppose to stretching our imagination to create our own stories; we gladly spend hours shopping for material goods we don't need to fill an empty void, instead of finding the courage to test our own skills and express our own designs.

I named this post "Part I" because I know I will come back to it and expand on it continuously as I learn and grow.  Achieving true happiness and success is, as Oprah puts it, a singular and very straightforward goal, but it is a goal that I believe, is a long journey that requires a lifetime of learning, reflection, and truthfulness to yourself.