I've lived an interesting life to say the least and I've achieved quite a few things. The word society uses is "achieved", but the phrase I like to use is, "flowed through". What I'm most proud of however, is that I give myself permission to be myself, and the people around me know it and over time, have begun to value it. At first, this was scary, I'll be honest. When I first started being myself around 17, my lips would quiver asking for things I wanted to ask for, whether from my parents, superiors in the Army, or even friends.

However, over time, people realised that I seemed to be the happiest and most peaceful one in the bunch, and they started to treat my preferences differently and with respect. They started to honour them. At first though, those incidents would include accompanying statements like, "Ya he's weird so he's ordering this," at a group lunch or "he's anti-social so he's not coming to this party," when I declined invites to parties with people with undesirable health habits that I knew would tempt me to throw all my work on my health down the drain. Over a few years though, when they saw things getting accomplished, me largely not flinching where most others would in life, and me being the one in the group that kept his calm where most others would panic or be frantic about something, my choices started to draw admiration from them.

I've decided to compile some of the areas in my life that get a boost from being myself, and share them with you. I hope you are able to use them in your life, if you are not already doing so! Here's a summary.