How to attain clearer knowledge of yourself to achieve career happiness
Are you seeking to attain clearer knowledge of yourself in your work? Do you want to realize your authentic professional identity and be seen as more than your job title?
First, let’s start here. What's do you think is the difference between these ideas:
Beliefs versus knowledge
Who you think you are versus who you really are
Determining what's real and what's not is challenging in part because our minds believe what it sees or experiences as truth.
Our minds are highly perceptive, but they're also easily fooled. Why is this?
Rupert Spira, a spiritual teacher, puts it this way:
"Everything we experience is mediated through the mind, and the mind's knowledge of anything can only be as good as its knowledge of itself."
Thus, our minds are faulty in creating our self image and self-understanding because it's only as good as it's been trained to be.
PLATO'S ALLEGORY OF THE CAVE
To illustrate this point about the nature of reality and truly knowing ourselves, I'll briefly summarize Plato's Allegory of the Cave from The Republic.
SUMMARY
A group of prisoners have lived their entire lives inside of a cave. They are chained against a wall. Behind them, is a fire where guards use puppets to cast shadows on the wall in front of the prisoners. Each day, the prisoners watch the shadows. This is their lived reality.
Plato entertains that one day, the prisoners could be liberated and released from their chains. Upon this, they could turn their heads and see the fire and understand the illusion. Except, instead of having epiphanies, they would experience sharp pain in their eyes because they would not be used to the bright light. Additionally, if someone asked them to name what they saw and identify the shadow puppets, they'd be confused because they're accustomed to the shadows more than the reality. Plato says the prisoners will choose to look at the shadows because it's more familiar to their vision.
Finally, Plato imagines one prisoner gets the courage to crawl out of the cave and into the sun. First, he would be blinded by the light, he would experience great discomfort, pain and confusion. The time needed to acquire his new habit of sight might be considerable.
Yet, that prisoner would likely choose to suffer and learn to adjust to the light than be kept in a false reality his whole life.
And, if he could go back down and visit the other prisoners to tell them what he saw, they wouldn't believe him. They'd think he had lost his sight since he could no longer see as clearly as they do in the darkness.
Key themes of this allegory are:
Quest for enlightenment
Nature of reality [what is real?]
Overcoming things that keep us in the dark [remaining unaware of truth and our true selves]
TAKEAWAY NUGGETS
We are our own self limiters, until we LEARN to see ourselves differently.
After working with many clients, I've realized my gift is teaching people how to truly SEE their professional identity. It's not something people do well on their own.
Most of us see our "shadows" in our work, meaning we:
have heard about our strengths,
hold a certain job title,
have years of experience in a field,
or earned a special degree.
And this is why we don't know the true nature of ourselves in our work. These aspects aren't a clear portrayal of our real identity. These are the shadows, not our actual self.
"All people have a sense of being or knowing themselves, not all people know themselves clearly. In most cases, our sense of self is mixed up with the content of experience and, as a result, its natural condition of peace and happiness is veiled." - Rupert Spira
Imagine you were a prisoner in Plato's cave. Your sense of yourself and who you truly are would be hidden from you.
Your ability to uncover your career path and authentic professional identity would be veiled because you weren't able to see the whole truth. You needed to be unchained.
Self-knowledge is the key to unlocking peace, happiness, and career belonging.
Few people choose to undergo reinvention to become their true selves because it feels too risky-- you have to give up the illusion of who you are.
Shadows get shaped from years of:
being known for a specific thing,
being loved for a specific thing,
being paid handsomely to do that specific thing over and over again.
Reinvention [letting go of illusions] means risking... everything.
Yet, for those who choose to suffer while readjusting their vision to the sunlight, they are rewarded with a clear sense of inner knowing of the nature of their authentic professional identity.
REFLECTION QUESTIONS
If you were the prisoner who made your way out of the cave, would it be worth it to you?
Is it better to ascend out of the cave than stay in the darkness? Why?
How might you come to see your actual self and not the illusion of your self that you've been focused on for years?
If you can liberate yourself to your own truth, then how might you liberate others to see theirs as well?
I'm happy to help you answer these reflection questions. Jump on my calendar for a chat.