The Uncomfortable Mirror, Part 5

Click Here to Download a Printable Version of This Article

This is part 5 of a 5-part article.

Read Part 1 Here
Read Part 2 Here
Read Part 3 Here
Read Part 4 Here

Look Into the Mirror

The most powerful way to learn from history is to understand it as a mirror that reflects who we are as individuals and teaches us about our own nature and our own potential.

We must never make the mistake of thinking that the evil nature displayed by despicable historical figures is removed from us.

We must also realize that the greatness we see in heroes in history is a reflection of our own potential for greatness.

We were born for greatness. We were born to move the cause of liberty.

But to discover and develop our greatness requires a high level of conscious awareness of our dual nature.

By fully accepting the realities and responsibilities of our dual nature we can consciously create our ideal lives and our ideal selves.

Studying and applying history to our lives is like sculpture, which is, in the words of Irving Stone, “an art which, by removing all that is superfluous from the material under treatment, reduces it to that form designed in the artist’s mind.”

We must study history to see ourselves through new eyes, with more honesty, expanded maturity, deeper wisdom, and greater awareness.

As the French novelist Marcel Proust wrote, “The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new lands but seeing with new eyes.”

Let us look deeply into the mirror of history to see things as they are, and as they will be.

Click Here to Download a Printable Version of This Article

*****************************

Stephen Palmer is a book writer for mission-driven leaders, a small business lead generation website design architect and persuasive website copywriter, a co-founder of The Center for Social Leadership, and the author of Uncommon Sense: A Common Citizen’s Guide to Rebuilding America.

He co-authored the New York Times bestseller Killing Sacred Cows: Overcoming the Financial Myths that are Destroying Your Prosperity, as well as Hub Mentality: Shifting from Business Transactions to Community Interaction.

He is a liberal-arts graduate of George Wythe University and a graduate and faculty member of the “non-traditional business school” Wizard Academy.

Stephen resides in Round Rock, Texas with his gorgeous wife Karina, awesome son Alex, and princess daughters Libby, Avery, and Laela.

Subscribe to Stephen’s blog and contact him at stephen [at] leadershipwriter [dot] com.