My Life Situation

The speaker, a 35-year-old man going through a divorce, reflects on his life situation and career. He believes that analyzing one's life based on ego-driven measures like money or relationships is not meaningful. He values authenticity, emotional growth, and learning from suffering. He acknowledges that he has some resources and skills, but his main focus is on gaining wisdom and insight from his experiences. He feels empowered and grateful for his journey, and believes that comparing himself to others is not important. He acknowledges that he is only a quarter of the way through his adult life and is optimistic about the future. Overall, he is in a good place and feels comfortable with his personal growth. A tricky topic, because I'm trying to sort of summarize my life situation and where I'm at now as a 35 year old man, separated from his wife, about to get divorced, and, you know, still exploring where I'm at in terms of my career, and hesitant to do this chat because it's a very ego based concept, you know, analyzing where I'm at, where am I at in life, because ultimately the sort of comparison or the sort of analysis will be based on some sort of ego based measures like money or relationships or, you know, career or whatever, or it will be based on some measurements dictated by society, so, but where am I at in life, and we're looking at life as, you know, we're trying to find out authentically who we are. We're emotional beings, heart centered beings, and we want to give and receive love, we want to grow into our full authentic self, and I think, let's get it out there on some ego based measures, I'm not doing too good, I haven't found my brilliant career or brilliant business, I'm not in a happy marriage, and, you know, surface level there's some pros and cons. Luckily, you know, I do have some resources and some skills and some, I've got other things going for me, but, you know, at one level things haven't worked out, but this is where that insight about how suffering can lead to learning, can be a catalyst for change and learning, and you look at great people and they've all suffered, the truly great ones, Nelson Mandela's, the Oprah Winfrey's, the Mother Teresa's, they've all suffered and learned. By the way, I'm certainly not putting my health anywhere in that league, but the point is having a kind of boring, staying inside the ego's walls and safe existence doesn't lead to insight and challenge and doesn't catalyse change. So I look at it and I think, well, the least important of the lot is I've got some blessings in terms of some of the resources at my disposal, whether it's relationships and beautiful family friends, whether it's my physical well-being, I'm a healthy guy, and, you know, I've still got some hair, a little bit of financial resources behind me, and some skills, you know. So I've got some resources and some skills, you know, I've managed to be blessed enough to have some education, have some skills, and learn some things, and experience things. And so that's sort of the least important, that I've got it, and that's part of the story. I've also got freedom, I'm not, although I've made mistakes, I've kind of found myself in this position where I'm not, my mistakes to date haven't actually tied me up to anything. In almost every way, I'm free and I've got my liberty, but most importantly, I've got understanding, I have wisdom, that's what I have, wisdom is knowledge, is the fusion of knowledge and experience, and all this stuff that's happened to me in my life, and my career conflict, and now I've come to this place of understanding, I do have some wisdom and insight, some very, very powerful, powerful wisdom and insight. And so, you know, the authentic self doesn't really want to be making judgements, and I'm conscious of that, a little bit of this talks a little bit ego-based, but really, I'm empowered, it wouldn't matter if I didn't have the resources, and I didn't have the freedom, it wouldn't matter, because that's, the thing is, I've found this wisdom, and even a few people who have seen it, who were there with me, they said, geez, you're young to get this, you're young to have both suffered and learned, and many, many people just don't, the penny never drops, they just go through their life in conflict, and that's the biggest gift, in my ego-driven self, I would sometimes compare myself to somebody who's either, you know, they might have a great marriage, or they might have found this niche at work, or they appear to be doing very well, they've got their own business, and you go, gee, how much I'm young compared to them, but, you know, if they haven't got it, if they haven't worked out the game yet, you know, this is me, I've been so blessed, it's like the marriage, it's like that three and a half years from meeting the Lord through the divorce, the ultimate blessing, the work, being able to experience all the good things and the bad, and then come to this point of understanding, so, you know, at 35 years of age, I'm in a great place, and I think it was great to have Michael and Rick on this trip to put a bit of context around my age, I remember somebody said to me, you know, what you actually are now, you're a quarter of the way through your adult life, and he's right, that's exactly what I am, I'm a quarter of the way through my adult life, and it was interesting, you know, in a sense because Michael, on that measure, was half way through his adult life, and hopefully we'll all live longer, but, and, you know, Rick was three quarters of the way through his adult life, now he probably will live longer, but the point is, it was just interesting to see the three of us at these different levels of our journey, and I think seeing Michael there just made me realise that I was blessed, because I have come to this message early, this profound message, and, you know, seeing Rick there, it's like, you know, there's so much that can be achieved, and, you know, so I suppose what I'm trying to say is, I don't think, in practising this new way, incorporating some of these changes in my life, I don't think I'm going to be, I don't think there'll be a lot of where am I at in life thinking, because I know exactly where I'm at, but to the extent that there is, I'm in a real good spot. You know, it's, I've had a whole heap of experiences in the first quarter of my adult life, extraordinary experiences, travelling around the world, women, different jobs in industries, spiritual growth, extraordinary failures and suffering, and, you know, here's where I'm at, and I feel empowered, and it's going to be a very tough, challenging journey, but, you know, I'm in a good place, and this measure of, oh, but someone else is married and they've got a steady job, and that's their journey, I can't judge it, I'm not sitting here saying my journey is better, because I've, but everybody's on their own, and I certainly am very, very comfortable with, you know, sort of where I'm at, and the sort of learning and growth I've had.