“If you want to awaken all of humanity, then awaken all of yourself. If you want to eliminate the suffering in the world, then eliminate all that is negative in yourself. Truly, the greatest gift you have to give, is that of your own self-transformation.” Lao Tzu.
I found this amazing quote on the VIA Institute on Character website. Clearly it spoke to them. To me, it is both inspiring and a testimony to the power of what creating your personal manifesto can mean for all of us.
The awakening to yourself, the “Know thyself’, is Step 1 in our 7 steps framework in our book, My Manifesto, a compassionate guide to reveal your best life. In order to awaken to, to know, yourself, we invite you to identify your character strengths. These 24-character strengths, identified for you in your individual order when completing the character strengths survey, are a key to what makes you, you. Living into those strengths is a key to living your best life, but it is also a way to release goodness into the world so that we all benefit in turn. This is the ripple that creates the ‘community of care’ of which we have previously written.
Step 5 in our 7 steps is the Releasing Step. This is the one in which you face up to the things that are causing you suffering, that are holding you back, and that trap you in self-limiting beliefs. By not challenging the causes of this suffering, by allowing them to trap you in their thrall, you are not only unable to be released personally into your goodness, but you are also perpetuating suffering in the world by disallowing your goodness to enter it.
What greater persuasion do we need to prompt us to do our work conscientiously to create our very own current, unique, personal manifesto? This work provides you with the clarity you need to transform your life from one in which you ‘hope’ you are living your best life, to one in which you know you are! In living your best life, you bear out the promise of Lao Tzu:
The greatest gift you have to give, is that of your own self-transformation.