We grow up in families – and we get wired in to a view of the world. Our brain compartmentalizes our environments so that we can process the information we’re taking in.
Families create family filters – stories – summaries of who we are in the family – “the mean one” , “the one who can’t get his act together”, “the pushover”, “the one who has it made and no problems”…
We spend our lives living out and proving true these roles we adopt and get assigned.
We have lives seperate from our families – but usually we are remarkably consistant within the family with the family filter we’ve been living our whole life – even if it has very little to do with who we really are.
I experienced this first hand this week with the death of my brother-in-law.
To the family he was the one who couldn’t get his act together – but to the outside world – and where he spent most of his time – he lived a very important and meaningful, well ordered life.
One part of this game of life is to outgrow our family filters without outgrowing our families. We’re hardwired to be consistant with these filters – but just on the other side of that filter lies fulfillment of our true purpose.
Be extraordinary and walk beyond the family filters in your life – let go of them with thanks – they were important at one point – but now they’re like moldy fruit – time to let em and to step into the work of fulfilling your purpose here. The game’s afoot and we need players who aren’t dragging this baggage all over the field.
