Doubt

Hi, my name is Bill, and my life didn’t turn out as I planned. There, that wasn’t so hard I suppose. Too bad they’re just words, false ones at that. The very reason that I have the life that I do is because I failed to have a plan. And I largely view myself, minor exceptions excluded, as a failure because of it.

My dreams are often uneventful. But last night I had a dream encounter with a character that I have yet to identify. For the sake of this conversation, that doesn’t matter. What he said to me does. I was in a bar yet to be identified for reasons yet to be determined, nursing a Crown Royal when the stranger engaged me in conversation. The details are muddy but his final words to me snapped me from my edible-induced deep sleep.
“Bill, you don’t know who you are, what you’re doing or what you want. Until you figure that out you’ll never be happy.”

I guess that I’m going to break my “New Year’s Resolutions are bullshit” mantra and make one. To dig down on this “revelation” and see if some good, or maybe just some clarity, comes as a result of it. I have to get to the bottom of this, because I know there is some truth to the dream and I feel motivated to take the initiative to dig down on it.

I’ve always had a “man in the mirror” mentality. As long as I can look at that man staring back at me and make eye contact then I am living a good life. And for the most part I like who I am as a person. I try to be kind, charitable, respectful and pleasant to be around. I have a traditional understanding of what a good man is and I endeavor to be one every day. I embrace simplicity, honesty, and integrity because I know they work. Simplicity keeps things easy to define and sort. Honesty allows me to avoid the pitfalls and memory gaffes that bring down liars. Integrity above all else because it is the ONLY thing that is a common denominator in every man of respect you will meet. Integrity is always doing the right thing, no matter if no one sees or knows about it.
So why am I so concerned about being full of shit?
I mean, I don’t think I am but I worry about it too often and it concerns me. Clearly, the self-doubt that has plagued me for most of my life is still with me and I really need to lose it. But how?

Until I get to the bottom of that question I really will not know who I am or what I want and I will never be happy.