This is the age of rediscovery.

Bookstores are filled with hundreds of books on how to rediscover your childhood, relationships, sense of balance, your mission or purpose in life and meaning in your career or business. Everywhere I look I see people who are working harder at trying to have fun and find a sense of meaning in their jobs and in their life in general.

Is this an idea whose time has come or is it the accumulation of years of searching and chasing after the empty values in life.

People by the tens of thousands are leaving corporate America in search of freedom, fulfillment and a sense of control over their life. People are leaving relationships by the millions in search of something more or better. Whatever more or better means.

There is increasing evidence that many of these people in spite of their renewed search for more are still leading lives of "quiet desperation". This was true when Emerson wrote it and it is still true today. In spite of an increasing number of choices of careers, playthings, people, activities, travel and interests frustration seems to still be the word of the day.

I have a client in the cruise business. I recently spent three weeks cruising the Caribbean while I was working with the crews. (I know it was tough duty, but someone had to do it) I had allot of free time to observe a wide variety of passengers and their behavior.

People would push and shove to get on board the ship prior leaving port and they shoved and pushed just as much to get off the ship when the cruise was over. I watched as people everywhere brought with them on board more than bathing suits and healthy appetites. I watched as they brought their relationship frustrations and agendas, their fears and prejudices, their anger and their hopes, their un-met needs and their attitudes about everything both positive and negative.

One would have thought that these people, since they were on vacation would have been able to relax and enjoy life at least for a week. Not so. If they were unhappy on shore they were just as unhappy on board. If they were angry on shore they were just as angry on board. If they were happy on shore they were just as happy on board.

"The problem is not in the stars, but in ourselves". What is Rediscovering Yourself

Lets look at the definition: Discover, To obtain sight or knowledge of for the first time. To make known or visible. To expose. Not being an expert in linguistics I would offer that Re-discover would assume that we have already done the discovery and we for what ever reason need to do it again.

I believe herein lies a part of the problem. Most people have never really discovered themselves the first time so their rediscovery is a new discovery at best.

I have never been crazy about dictionary definitions. I often find them either redundant or of no value, but in this case I am stuck with what Mr. Webster has to say on the subject. Since he is not around to question my elaboration I am free to add whatever I choose to his brief description.

Rediscover yourself means to me, an awakening of your true self. Those real feelings, fears hopes, longings and values that have shaped your life. Often because of self expectations, other peoples agendas for us, the rules of society, the rules of business, the needs that we create due to decisions we make along life's path we have built walls around ourselves to protect us from the world "out there". What we have also done unwearyingly is to protect ourselves from the real world "in here". Few people really know themselves. Fewer still that do, never achieve a state of authenticity or realness. Most people go through life in auto pilot.

We have learned our reactions and lessons well. We play our parts with precision. We have lost the childlike spontaneity and curiosity that are the benchmarks for peace and happiness.

I know, because I to have spent years building protective walls around myself. It has only been in the last few years that I have been willing to find the courage to be. I must admit that I have a long way to go, but at least I have begun.

There are risks in being real. There are times when rejection cannot be avoided. There are times when other's judgments will, if we let them, creep into our behavior. John Powell's book, Why am I Afraid to Tell You Who I am is one of my favorites. In it John talks about the value of vulnerability and the pitfalls of hiding. I wish I had read it years before I did. I am confident I would have had fewer years of guilt, disappointment, struggle and pain as I worked on becoming a human being rather than a human doing. Note the subtle difference.

Rediscovering yourself is getting in touch with your divinity and its expression through your humanity.

Tim Connor
http://www.timconnor.com