The Viable Alternative

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It was the year 2008 and a good friend of mine invited me to come to a birthday party of one of his friends.

When I got to the birthday party, I met up with my friend who invited me and he introduced me to the “birthday girl.”

It turned out that the birthday girl and I had been a part of the same business organization some years back.  I began to tease her about not reaching a certain, “coveted” level in the organization, knowing full well in the forefront of my mind that I had not only not reached the said level of the organization, but I also had quit and was no longer a part of it.

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Note: If you haven’t read the first part of this blog, click here.

The Illusion

The experience I had with “self improvement” (or lack thereof) speaks to the issue that all of us face.  We’re unable to create what we want for our lives because frankly we’re unable to realize The Illusion that we’re all trapped in.

In The Illusion, it SEEMS as if we’re going in a particular direction (e.g. it seemed as if I was trying to improve myself), or it may seem as if we’re going after a particular goal or that we are being a certain way.  On the surface things may look that way, but in actuality something entirely different is going on below the surface such that the way things seem aren’t what they really are.

Hence The Illusion: we’re deluded into thinking what we see in terms of our behaviours, goals, actions and desires are really what they are.

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I remember it clearly as if it were yesterday…

It was in the early 2000s, in the month of November, on a sunny afternoon. (I know, how cliché, but it really was sunny that afternoon.)

It was a really strange time of my life because I wasn’t working, having left the only “real job” of my adult life almost a year earlier.  Well, I was sort of working with some startup that had big dreams, but I wasn’t getting paid for it, and frankly, I was just going through the motions with it and with life as a whole.  I really had no drive to do anything, no motivation, nothing whatsoever.  Of course I would’ve “liked” to have the symbols of success (nice care, nice pad, money, etc.) if they were bestowed to me by some benevolent “genie”, but really, that obviously wasn’t happening. Not only did I NOT have the desire or the motivation to pursue these things, but honestly, I didn’t think I had the capability of attaining them either if I were to pursue them.

Now, of course I know that the pursuit of material things is a road to nowhere, but really, if I had been pursuing these things, at least I would’ve been passionate about SOMETHING, and have been moving in SOME direction.  In my case, I was just standing still doing nothing.

The thing was, I wasn’t lazy, nor was I depressed.  I was just simply devoid of any desire for anything in life.  I just didn’t care.  I was bereft of any inspiration to do anything at all.

Was I happy?

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You know, when I first completed this site, I considered this a milestone in my life.  After years of writing about The Viable Alternative, I finally was able to compile it all into one neat little site.  I beamed with pride at what I considered an intellectual masterpiece of all the insights that helped me on my path of personal development.

Well, after my “crowing achievement”, when I realized all was “done”, I excitedly email several trusted friends of mine who’ve been what I’ve considered confidants on my path of self-discovery and tell them to check out my site.

One of my friends, who has been a trusted mentor of mine, gave me what my ego considered to be some damning feedback about my site.  Now, I always welcome constructive criticism from trusted and well meaning people, because it helps me to grow and work on my blindspots.  However, due to fact that I am a sensitive person by nature, (a quality that I have always loathed about myself), the feedback was quite stinging.

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Welcome to The Viable Alternative.  My goal is for you to be inspired through this concept to express your own unique greatness to the world in a way that only you can, using whatever resources and treasures that you uniquely possess.  This site provides several tools and resources listed below that will help you remove the obstacles that stand in the way of you breaking out of The Illusion and living The Viable Alternative.

1. Podcasts where I interview people whose lives are a reflection of The Viable Alternative;
2. A personal development blog that shares the insights and lessons that I’ve learned on my own path of self discovery and self actualization that I embarked on so that I may live The Viable Alternative.
3. Recommendations of different books, organizations, movies that have helped me in the past;