Being True To Ourselves
By Darryl Duke. Filed in Belief |Tags: creating our path, faith, Happiness, helping others, overcoming doubts and fears
Despite all the things in my sobriety that has helped me to believe in myself, a creator I call God, and that everything’s going to be all right even when it’s not, I have been feeling somewhat fearful and sad the past few weeks. It began when I started battling some worry I felt about my book not gaining the attention I had hoped for and grew by letting the negative effects of the news media bring me down. I also started realizing just how hard it is to gain the kind of notoriety needed to help other at a higher level. Now I’m not saying I want to be the next Dalai Lama or a male Oprah, nor am I saying I want to be another one of the many self help gurus out there. I simply want the chance to achieve a level of celebrity, if you will, that will allow me to reach the millions of people that I know I can help with my book and my beliefs in life. To add to the emotions I’m feeling, I see people on the Internet and TV who have received varying degrees of celebrity by acting out in some crazy and often nasty ways, and they don’t even seem to care about helping others. I don’t mean to judge anyone here, and I want people to do what makes them happy in life, but I can’t deny the frustration and anger I feel sometimes when I see or hear about the negative and meaningless things people do. These things can’t be helpful to anyone and has more of an effect on people’s well being than we think. I do believe there are lots of people out there who agree with me and I promise I haven’t lost hope in achieving what I want to do in life, but it’s been a tougher road for me than I originally thought it was going to be. I just need to continue doing the things that got me this far on the path I began when I decided to get sober and stay that way. Have Faith, and use the tools of prayer, people, and hope to help me. I also know that as long as I stay true to myself and my beliefs, and not let the effects that our world can have on me at times bring me down, I’ll be all right even when things aren’t. Several years ago a young woman in AA gave me a CD and told me one of the songs on it made her think of me when she heard it. It’s actually a song about the Oklahoma City bombing sung by Garth Brooks, but it meant a lot to me at the time and still does today. I hope you like it.
Thursday, April 8th 2010 at 11:51 PM |
The key is to stay consistent and continue reaching out to people. You’ll help people one by one and eventually 2 by 2 and so on, and the effects of your efforts will grow. It just takes TIME. I always hated hearing that saying, but it’s definitely true. Like you said, stay TRUE to yourself. You know me… I wouldn’t have it any other way!!!
Love you! ~Kara
Wednesday, April 14th 2010 at 2:42 PM |
Well, Darryl, I hear and honor your fear and your resolve to continue doing what got you to where you are at this moment. How divine it is that I stumbled upon your book and your blog just as I am about to create my own! Thanks to Joshua O’Brien and a comment you made on one of his FB posts. SEE…you ARE reaching out there…one by one, soon two by two. What is time, anyway, but a made up measurement ;-0)