“It takes courage to grow up and become who you really are.” ~ E.E.Cummings

Has there ever been a situation where you have had a clear sign of who you are, but then you completely ignore it?

It's possible that you weren't ready to confront your true potential. Perhaps you were too busy worrying abut what others thought rather than following your intuition and accepting who you are, or maybe you were too scared to come to terms with making a change or taking a risk. Eventually, you just put it off, thinking, "I can come to terms with this at a later point." I too know how this feels, because I constantly worried too much about the present rather than the future.

In my 22-something-years of living, I have encountered an overwhelming number of different emotions. The strongest one was probably the emotion of failure. I say emotion instead of feeling because emotions are not always real. Emotions are tendencies that have been influenced by society, friends, enemies and even loved ones.

We trust what we think is real, and we allow these thoughts to drive our actions, but it's important to understand that what we think is not always what's real. To sum it up, don't believe what you always think. What we feel, on the other hand, is always real.

For example, like I mentioned earlier, I struggled with thinking that I was not going to amount to anything — in other words, failure. I had multiple influences in my personal and work life, yet no one supported my ambitious desire to become a writer. Eventually, I began to have feelings of remorse and despair. I had a constant pit in my stomach because my feelings that had been influenced by societies norms told me I wasn't good enough.

I continued to have strong emotions about why in the world I would ever let someone or something hide away or deny something that I loved. Eventually, I came to terms with accepting my true potential and cutting away immediate influences that did not drive me towards my life ambitions.

The sooner I was able to accept and deny the negative tendencies in my life, the sooner I was able to drop from my head and tune into what was in my heart.

I strongly encourage anyone who is willing to listen to what their heart says rather than their head to free their feelings and start focusing on what your true life purpose is, regardless of what others may think around you. By becoming aware of our thoughts and accepting them, we no longer have to attach our self-worth to our emotions. You will find that once you trust your heart's guidance, you will be able to free your feelings and accept your life purpose.