It is amazing how a simple statement can make you stop and rethink your entire life. It was quite simple and I wish I could say it was something someone had said to me, but it was me who was saying it, I just had not yet internalized it. I am not my job. Maybe I need to say that again. I am not my job. I am me.
The whole thing started in a discussion in one of my classes about what was success. One of my students said success was having a lot of money so he could buy a lot of “ho’s.” Others said success was having a lot of money and a great job. As we went around the room, I came to realize how so many of them thought that their being a success in life was related to what they did, not who they were. And then it happened, I opened my mouth and these words seemed to come from nowhere – “you are not your job – your job is your job – you are you. Success comes with you being the best you that you can be.”
Like so many others, I use to think being successful meant I had to make a lot of money. I no longer think that. I had to learn that my job is my job and I am who I am. What makes me successful is when I focus on being the best me I can be. While I am still working with God on tweaking the design, I have come to the realization that nobody can do me and I cannot do anybody else. We each have to work at being successful at being the best us we can be.
What helps me be the most successful me I can be is when I focus on being who God created me to be. I become most successful at being me when I spend time getting to know me, the me I was created to be. It is amazing what happens when you focus on what you enjoy in your life, feeling what you like to feel and being around the kind of people you like to be around. Over the last few months, I have made some major changes in my life. I have resumed some of the things I used to enjoy doing (crocheting, pleasure reading, sewing), focused on doing things that bring me peace and happiness, and being around people who are positive and love me for who I am.
This is what Jesus did. He claimed time for himself and doing the things he enjoyed doing (he seemed to go to quite a few parties with friends), focused on doing things that brought him peace (time with God and away from the crowds) and being around people who were interested in hearing what he had to teach (the crowds and the disciples).
So if we want to be successful at doing us, perhaps we need to look at how Jesus did himself. What lessons can we learn from the Messiah about how to be successful at being us? What I learned was the importance of spending time with the one who created me, who knew me before I was ever born. Some quiet time with God got me started on the road to success at doing me.