“You’re not the person you’re disappointed with.“ So said The Grasshopper very early this morning.

How many times have you mentally beaten yourself up for not being the kind of person you want to be? I’d ask you how effective that strategy was in getting you on track, but we all know the answer. It never works.

That doesn’t stop us from doing it. The escape from this mess is the simple recognition that you’re not the person you’ve made up in your head. You are confusing you with your patterns.

Yes, we all have habit patterns that don’t serve us well, but we are not our patterns. They are routines that we’ve become conditioned to run, but they are not us.

Who we are at our core cannot be defined. Our core self is like infinity; we know it exists but we can’t specifically describe it. So as a substitute we describe ourselves as our habit patterns.

We are responsible for the outcomes our patterns cause but we are not them. You are not disappointed with you; you’re disappointed by the actions you’ve taken, mainly caused by your patterned way of reacting to the world.

The part of you that breathes and beats your heart and moves your body around is not the part of you that you’re disappointed with. You’re disappointed by the image of yourself that you carry in your head. Again, this is something you’ve made up and gotten comfortable with over the years. “Comfortable” can be translated in this context as being in a rut.

You are not your patterns, you are not your image. You’re as far reaching as infinity and are not limited by a label.

Here’s a homework assignment for us all: Start removing labels from yourself one-by-one until there are none left. That’s when you’ll find the real you – someone you’ll never be disappointed with.

All the best,

John