by Maria Sirois

Years ago I heard Wayne Dyer tell an audience that other people’s opinions are none of our business. It struck me in that moment how true that is and how freeing. Our business is the business of growth; of becoming our highest selves bit by bit over time. What others think of our journey, how they credit or discredit us is for the most part distraction. Our opportunity and our greatest inner vitality comes when we focus on who we are in the present moment and how we can shape that moment toward slightly healthier, happier, and more enriching choices. To do so means quieting the voices in our heads that stem from others and turning down the noise of the voices outside us. This is not an easy task.

As E.E. Cummings reminds us: “To be nobody but myself – in a world which is doing its best, night and day, to make me somebody else – means to fight the hardest battle any human can fight…” Consider this: at the end of your lifetime, will you have wanted to have lived the one unique life that was yours to offer or will you be content to have shaped your form toward the advice that buffeted you throughout that lifetime?

We need not worry about how well we do this task of becoming more true to ourselves or about the final outcome … we need only concern ourselves with making progress in small steps each day. As we focus on these microchanges of living into what is true within us, over time we become ourselves, fully, deeply, and richly.

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MariaSirois
Dr. Maria Sirois, PsyD, is the Vice President of Curriculum at Wholebeing Institute and an inspirational speaker, seminar leader, and author who has worked at the intersections of wellness, psychology, and spirituality for nearly 20 years. As a wellness guide, Maria has been invited to keynote throughout the country at conferences for wellness centers, hospitals, hospices, philanthropy, business, academic and corporate institutions, as well as for the general public. She has been called both a “true teacher” and “an orator of great power and beauty.” Her book, “Every Day Counts: Lessons in Love, Faith, and Resilience from Children Facing Illness, was published in 2006.”