Authenticity

I have owned a janitorial company for 11 years. I am also writing a book about aligning my core values at home with my core values at work. The working title is Cleaning Up. Funny huh? A janitor cleaning up? The title is a double entendre. I know I should have bought a comedy club instead, right? The facts around cleaning up had to do with authenticity. When assessing who I was and where I was going in my life, I needed to look in the mirror. One of the things that made that simple task hard was the fact that I had been lying. Lying to myself, lying to my company, and lying to anyone that would listen. I had to come clean.

After recognizing that part of my problem was not being true or real, my steps to happiness had begun. I started to feel better on the inside which in turn, started showing up on the outside as well. By getting clean I was clear to pursue my passions in life. Recognition was a win in itself, but the reward of living and playing where I really wanted to be was equally important. It seemed that this path was here all along, but I didn’t realize that I had to drop all the other baggage to get here.

In my experience there was both fear and joy in letting go and finding out who I really was. At first I was worried about others judging me. I stopped being worried about others judging me after I dropped my judgments about them. Funny how it happened that way. I think today I live a happier life because of it. It seems like it is a lot less stressful worrying about my ego, or their ego, past or future. I am real and I like it. My reward is that I get to live in the moment. I still fall down but getting clean is awful fun… kind of like owning a comedy club.