A Challenge That Brought Forth Three Life Lessons

The Initiate: A Challenge That Brought Forth Three Life Lessons

As I continue on my journey at The Earth Center, am compelled to look at the life that I left behind and the new one I just began eight months ago. The many changes that I've gone through during these last eight months have been both demanding and enlightening at the same time. Honestly, my education at the Earth Center has been a tremendous challenge. And it still is a challenge, a challenge that never seems to end no matter how you go about it.

I've learned so many things throughout this journey that have left me in a state of blissful admiration and painstaking complexity. I say painstaking complexity because of the conflicts between the lessons that were instilled in me before this recent spiritual journey began and the new lessons that have brought me to the level of my spiritual journey today. There are no in-betweens, no gray areas. Bluntly stated, life is and always will be tough. Life is an uphill journey. There are no easy ways out. You'll take what seems to be the "easy way out" but you'll only be left with a longer road ahead.

After all the ups and downs of this journey so far, I am grateful for this challenge. From this challenge, I've learned many valuable lessons. And these valuable lessons are what my life is composed of today. They are my guiding tools to make sure I'm on the right path. Without these lessons, I would not still be at the Earth Center continuing my education. The three valuable lessons that first come to mind are mental discipline, honesty, and persistence.

Honesty was learned from our mothers, fathers, grandparents, and even teachers. This is one of the basic lessons taught to us when we're young. But the honesty I'm talking about is not the same honesty as we have learned during our childhoods. It's not just honesty towards others but honesty with ourselves. This is most important because this is what sets your limits and gains throughout life's journeys. Any life's journey, especially a spiritual one, should start with honesty and it begins with you.

You need to know and understand your goals and limitations, as well as how far you can go and not lose control. Having honesty with yourself is really asking the question "Am I capable of doing this?" Are you willing to reach that end result regardless of all the obstacles you encounter? And there will always be many obstacles. Honesty with yourself is such a valuable lesson to be learned because without it you'll only be fooling the most important person in the journey yourself.

It's not an easy task to be honest with yourself though, everyone wants to be that someone to make a difference and be tough. It's a challenge to admit that you cannot do However, if you're honest with yourself, you begin to be comfortable and unashamed of what you can and cannot do.

Mental discipline is another valuable lesson I have been taught, but it presents yet another challenge. Mental discipline is being aware of your actions, and thinking before doing. Mental discipline is basically the forethought and the guidance that helps you to catch yourself in the moment of decision. That moment becomes a moment of clarity because of mental discipline. It is an awareness that helps you make choices wisely. It's an awareness that helps to understand why you have those choices and how you'll go about choosing. It takes mental discipline to know what is right and what is wrong and to know when and when not to do something. 

Mental discipline isn't just applied when you have a life-changing decision. It is used every day at every moment because every moment of life is part of your journey. Every moment contributes to what your journey will become the next moment. 

As you can see, exercising mental discipline is very challenging. Most of the time, we work by impulse and going the easy way, which almost always is the wrong way, when we deal with everyday choices. We make mindless decisions when it comes to things we think are minor. And having this awareness or mental discipline every second, every minute and every hour of our life is hard enough in our busy lives. 

Persistence is yet another valuable lesson and a challenge within itself. Persistence is vital when it comes to putting together what I've learned and putting it into action. Persistence is what drives you to stick to finishing up what you started. It keeps you from straying when life gets really tough. It is the key to success. If you persevere and never give up, you eventually get to where you want to go.

It's easy to say that persistence is easy to practice, but often times we find ourselves with so much unfinished business. It's hard to persist when the going gets tough. However, without persistence, that's all our lives will be, unfinished business with an unsatisfied feeling.

So the three most valuable lessons I have learned in this journey that most prominently stick out in my mind are honesty with discipline, and yourself, mental persistence. They are distinct challenges that every journey has in common, especially spiritual journeys, but they get you to the end result you desire. They lead to achievement and keep you from going astray on your journey. These three lessons have given me guidance to understand and transform this education into knowledge. Information is just information if you don't practice it every day. Knowledge is when you make it your life, your career.

Life is a challenge. A spiritual journey is a more difficult challenge. With honesty, persistence, and mental discipline, you can conquer that challenge and find success in the end.