Why Your Experience Matters
I want to address a couple of basic concepts on the path of active authenticity. The first is that we often, and incorrectly, talk about authenticity as a discreet state, something we toggle either “on” or “off.”
Instead of this perspective, I want to suggest that authenticity operates along a gradient. That we can at times act with more authenticity, at other times, with less of it. The same action can be more authentic, or less so.
Second, while acting more authentically is a choice, to make that choice depends on a fair amount of self knowledge. Because you can’t choose to be something you don’t know how to be, or maybe you can, but I wouldn’t vouch for the results.
But each of us can act more authentically because it’s always possible to discover more of who we are and then act on what we discover.
To do this, though, we must expand our knowledge of who we are by engaging in a process of discovery.
In fact, viewing authenticity as a process of discovery is captured by the word chasing, and as it relates to the book, Chasing the Wild Authentic. In this framing of things, we go after our authenticity to discover more of who we are, and we rely on our experience to guide our way toward what is true for us.
The idea that we can use our experience as a reliable compass is significant for several reasons, but I’ll call out three.
First, because we each have a dedicated throughline to our own experience, we each possess what we need for an authentic life. You already possess the key to discover what you seek: you don’t have to search for this key elsewhere or outside of yourself.
Second, because your experience is unique to you, it suggests that you, and only you, are the expert on your best path forward. While making use of the relevant knowledge, wisdom, and information that’s out there can help expand your understanding and your choices, this information comes at you, not from you. While it’s useful information, it’s not the final word on what’s good for you. You are the final word. Take a minute to take this in. Honoring your authenticity restores you to your sovereignty.
And lastly, relying on your experience as a compass asks you to assess and make needed repairs to the mechanism that is your compass. It invites you to return to the beginning, where you stand in the world as you are, and as you experience. Feel yourself there, and really, right now, in this moment. Can you feel the you-of-you right now, sensing, thinking, feeling? Do you have a good “read” on your experience of things?
Maybe in the race to respond to outside demands you’ve neglected attending to your experience of things. Maybe you and your experience are no longer intimates.
Maybe you’re no longer sure WHAT you think, feel, sense, unless your experience has tipped into the danger zone and is flashing warning lights.
Or maybe your experience has been so narrowed it centers only on what you feel. And does the roller coaster of what you feel further undermine your confidence in your larger, more complete experience of things?
If you are to restore your experience-of-things to its rightful place –to be the reliable compass it’s designed to be—you must first evaluate your experience to understand if it’s gotten “mucked up” and the degree to which it’s “mucked up.” And then of course commit to the type of remedial work that’s required.
So, how do you “repair” a mucky internal compass?
It starts by considering ALL OF WHO YOU ARE in each moment. Not just perhaps what you feel most intensely.
You must again begin to factor in and consider your full, or what I call, three channel experience—yes, your emotions, what you feel, but your thoughts and physical sensations as well.
And then take things to the next level by making sure you’re not living out old and limiting stories, but in fact, are moving yourself toward authentic dreams with the actions you take.
When you restore confidence in your present experience, your experience can become the trusted ally it’s meant to be.
Using your experience as a compass asks you to take your experience seriously. But how do you do this? How do you cultivate a more accurate, more intimate knowing of your experience?
You do it by first committing to taking your experience seriously, and then you start actually taking your experience seriously.
Do you have a rich understanding of your bodily sensations and what they communicate to you in each moment?
How about your thoughts? Can you differentiate between the ones that are a repetitious replay of old stories, and the ones that would carry you closer to your dreams?
And can you perceive the full range of your emotions—not just the loudest ones—and can you distinguish between them and follow the one that is aligned with what you hold most dear?
On the path of active authenticity we prioritize our in-the-moment experience, and devote ourselves to understanding what it is.
We evaluate the information it yields, and when the information we receive seems off, we work to understand why, and start repairing things at the point at which we find ourselves. We let where we are suggest what to do first, and then what we do next.
To begin, we must go back to truly understanding the basics of our experience, our three-channel, real-time experience. The specifics of how to do this (with accompanying exercises and commentary) can be found in our first online Course: Your Internal Compass Reset. Learn more about this new offering here.
For those with the book, I recommend you review Chapter One. On the path of active authenticity we commit, and then we start. This is what we do, and that really is where the good life begins.
Explore Zone 1: Knowing Who You Are posts below.
