Blue Collar Executive

Why Be A Ham When You Can Be The Whole Pig!

September 21, 2021 Lewis Taulbee Jr
Blue Collar Executive
Why Be A Ham When You Can Be The Whole Pig!
Show Notes Transcript

We have always been taught to put others first and to never be the center of attention.  That is good advice, but we should not suppress our true selves to do so.  We now have a generation that is being taught to choose one side and hate the other.  In doing this we create an avatar for what we feel we need to be successful or accepted.  However, our need for acceptance can actually make us invisible.

We will never find true love, peace, and happiness until we step out from behind the character we portray.   It is scary to take our shield down and allow others to see us for who we are because we fear rejection.  Some may reject us, but our true friends and family will love us just the way we are.  The most daring and most meaningful approach to life is being who we truly are!  Dare to let your true light shine! 

Don't change so people to like you.  Be yourself and the right people will love you.

Why Be A Ham When You Can Be The Whole Pig

We have a generation coming up right now that are being taught there are two kinds of people and that they must choose a side. They need to know that this is not true. We are not who we voted for and self-worth is so much more valuable than net worth. We are all unique and should stay true to who we are individually, but we also all in love and heard and laugh and cry all the same.   Let's dive right into this. Let's go 

Today I needed a little break so I took a walk through my woods. I don't take my phone or anything when I walk because I just want to refresh my mind a little and take in all God's beauty. As I was walking under the Walnut trees, hoping to not get hit in the head by a nut dropped by a squirrel, I was just thinking about my day and thought as I often do, I just wish I was doing more to help others. Now don't get me wrong, I like what I do, but I often think that I could be better spending my time doing something far more rewarding. Do you ever feel like that?  In my thinking I said isn't there something more I could be doing to help others God?  I mean, after all, I'm not here for me….and as clear as an audible voice, I heard in my thoughts, it is about you. I stopped right in my path and I looked around. Then I started arguing with myself. Maybe one of them squirrels did hit me in the head with a nut now that I'm thinking about it!  I said, no, it's not about me. I'm here to serve God, help others, support my family, not myself. Then I heard it again. It is all about you. Then the thoughts just continued to flood my mind so I got back to this microphone as quickly as I could. The more I tried to argue the clearer it was becoming what the phrase it is all about you really means. Yes my number one priority is to be who God wants me to be. He made me and gave me directions to follow, but he wants my life to be about me. It's like my children. I take joy in watching them blossom into whatever they want to be and doing what pleases them, but I don't want to control every aspect of their lives. And I believe God feels the same way about us. He wants us to walk in his light, trust in him, believe in him, and follow him as our shepherd, but he gave us all a free will. He didn't have to do that. He could have made us all robots and used a remote control for our every move, but he didn't. He put us here and said, it is about you go out and be fruitful, enjoy life, love, laugh, and endure and I will always be right here when you need me.  Again just like we want for our own children. 

See life doesn't happen to us, it happens for us. However, instead of being true to ourselves and enjoying what we are, we create these characters of who we feel we need to be to be successful in our career or accepted by loved ones. This is why so many marriages fail and so many people fail in their jobs because we can only stay in character for so long before the curtain has to drop and expose our true being. Our true being is not the avatars we create, rather it's the light that shines through us. Everything else is just smoke and mirrors.  The makeup we wear, the clothes we put on, what we drive, the way we act. All of this is just a distraction from our true light. If we want to find real peace and happiness, we need to free ourselves from this character. This is why we have so much depression, anxiety, and worry in the world. Our bodies get tired of trying to carry around this character that's not really us. We all do it. We all play characters. Remember the great and powerful Oz? He was just a little scared guy behind the curtain and that's all of us. At some point we need to drop that curtain and be who we are. Let our true light shine. Our need for acceptance can actually make us invisible. We will never find our sense of completion or who we are in a job, riches, or fame. It took me a long time to learn this. When I was young and striving to be an executive, I was concerned about stepping out and trying to become something bigger than myself. Then one day I realized that there's nothing bigger than myself. My soul was not contained within the limits of my body. My body is contained within the limitlessness of my soul. As Popeye says, I am who I am and I can't be no more. 

Our imaginations are always showing us great things, but instead of chasing those, we create our own avatars of who we want to be seen as, or identify as, and that's okay as long as we don't lose sight of ourselves inside.  We are so much more than the avatars that we create. We are light. We are the light of the world!  Our eyes don't just see they project our light. And we must be true to who we are as individuals to truly be able to help others. It's okay to make it about you. Remember Jesus said we can't worry about the speck in our brother's eye until we remove the beam from our own. When I say God, help me, God lead me. God show me what to do, it's about me, even when I pray for others, it's me asking. So while we should always put God above all and always extend our hand to help others, it is always about us. What we do, what God made us to do. We have to do the things we need to do first, before we can help others or support anyone. 

The most daring and most meaningful approach to life is being who we truly are. I've always been a clown or a show off as Dad called me. Mom always said I was a ham, but dad would get aggravated at me and say, no, he's the whole pig. It's just the way I am. I can't tell you anything that I'm really great at, but I've never been afraid to just put it all out there and not really care too much about being criticized.  And as crazy as it sounds I truly don't do any of it to gain attention to myself. I know I can't sing like Vince Gill or play a guitar like Chet Atkins or deliver a joke like will Ferrell.  Singing and playing feels good in my heart and hey, if I can make someone laugh, there's no better feeling. So call me a show off, but I'm just being me. The real me. What you see is what you get.  opening up and showing your true self is a risk because our biggest fear is being rejected. I know I have critics, but I also know that I have family and friends that love and accept me for who I am and not the avatar or character I create. Friends, there is no better feeling than knowing you are loved for who you are and that you can drop the curtain and don't have to pretend to be anything else to be accepted. I can't be anyone else. I can't be playing the role of a character and have my soul on a totally different track. 

This is the point of this whole podcast. Be yourself. Yes you may lose a few people and you may even have a few bad talking behind your back, but your true friends and your loved ones will love you for who you are. Not the avatar you create, but for you. And when you can drop that curtain and just be yourself, that's when you'll find true happiness and peace. 

So who are you behind the curtain? What is your true talent? How can you serve the world without a mask own your true self? And you'll be amazed at how much the authentic you is love. What does those around you need that you can provide? That's all we really need to figure out to know our true purpose. The effect on others is the most valuable thing in life. Everything else in the world will rot around us. What's in our hearts will be there forever. So open up your heart and let the light shine for others. Never let anything stand in the way of your life. Don't be afraid to step out beyond the curtain.  Risk being seen in all your glory, because the more we hide behind these characters, the more we shrink, but the more we step out as our true selves, the stronger we become. So let's remove those masks and expose our true selves so that we can be the best that we can be for our family, for our friends, where our country and for God.  I don't know how much power I have in this world, but I do know that I made a few people happier than they would have been without me and as long as I know that I'm as rich as I'll ever need to be.

With that, we'll close another episode of the Blue Collar Executive podcast. I hope you found some value in it or at the very least found it entertaining. I hope you always stay true to yourself. 

And thank you so much for listening.