Recalibrate yourself from the inside out.

Several years ago, while I was walking through the mega-machinery of a manufacturing unit, a young engineer explained the importance of calibrating and recalibrating instruments and tools.

“Calibration helps us ensure that machines are working as they should by giving accurate measurements and ensuring the safety of users. Every tool loses some of its accuracy over time and needs to be calibrated again. This recalibration can either mean calibrating the machine to its original measurements or realigning them to current needs. An improvement to suit our current manufacturing needs, for instance.”

We focus on the efficient performance of machines we use in our daily lives – a car, for instance. We renew its spare parts, maybe put in some new fittings, and recalibrate it. If only we paid as much attention to recalibrate our minds and bodies. Neither have spare parts but we allow them to drift alng, ignoring the need for improvement. We get lazy and assume that they will somehow roll through without any attention or maintenance – until they don’t.

Unlike machines, which can be recalibrated in just their physical parts, a human is exponentially more complex and fascinating. Recalibrating a human from the inside out is far more effective than attempting to turn things around from outside in. We have been conditioned to believe that every human is alike or must be alike. This results from information overload by endless self-improvement articles, books, apps, life gurus, or training sessions that need people to go through a certain number of modules within a defined time limit… these would have us believe that we are all the same, driven by the same desires towards fulfillment.

If everyone is thinking alike, then somebody isn’t thinking. – George S. Patton

This extreme conditioning and information overload has made people believe that material wealth is all one needs for a perfect life.  Success is about the toys you can amass on your life journey. After a point, this accumulation becomes a form of self-validation. You were told that more toys meant more happiness. Why is this not happening? Perhaps you need another toy? Or get to a place where you think you can control the lives of more people? And so it goes, this sad search for fulfillment, until life flickers out even while you are still wondering where things went wrong.

Have you tried flipping the way you think and recalibrating yourself? The answer may not reveal itself by looking outward for peace. Maybe you need to look at something you have been determinedly ignoring – inside yourself. The only way to do that is to train yourself to look beyond the toys and frills of your outer life, constantly question yourself, get a sense of who you are and what enhances the quality of your life.

Your mind knows only some things. Your inner voice, your instinct, knows everything. If you listen to what you know instinctively, it will always lead you down the right path. – Henry Winkler

Many times, we would like to believe that there really is a general, readymade formula we can follow for a good life. That would be so convenient. We want it to be true so badly that we never tell the truth to ourselves. We feel safe doing what others think is a great life because we feel safe, and want to believe that we are happy doing the same. We avoid acknowledging the hard truth – that following others’ paths do not lead to our inner serenity.

The ‘serenity formula’ is one that we need to work out by ourselves. It is our life’s homework – not pretending to be happy when we are not and aimlessly getting pushed forward by a crowd that doesn’t know where it is going. Delusion happens because of fear. Fear makes you ignore your gut instinct or inner voice which always pipes up when something is wrong. It asks you to make decisions that are good for you over convenient decisions ruled by fear.

“When your intuition is roaring loud, follow it.” – Anonymous

The more definite people are about how you should live life, the more ignorant they are about it. We all know the basic tenets of physical survival. Beyond that, the road is ours alone to walk on. People might keep trying to convince you that another way of looking at life is a disaster; they might insist that the only way to live is the same path followed by most ‘no matter what’; otherwise, risk disaster.

Risk, to them, is the most fearful thing because they have deluded themselves into believing that they are living secure lives. Life comes with no guarantees, however hard we try to barricade ourselves from its uncertainties. Would you rather live a formulaic life with false promises of happiness or live one which offers you more depth and meaning? There will always be questions when you transform your life and start shaping it into what you have always wanted it to be. You are free to respond or ignore them. The only guide you need is your inner voice and knowing that you are on the right path.

“Have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.” – Steve Jobs

Being truthful to yourself marks the beginning of living your life. What’s keeping you from going where you want to? If your answer is money, you need to educate yourself on how to use it as a tool to secure your freedom and not view it as some passport to happiness, which it is not. If you respond with other platitudes, you are probably being held back by a common malaise – fear.

Fear will continue to tug at you at every stage in life. Rigorous focus on your fears will help you understand how absurd they are. If where you are does not feel right, it probably isn’t. Stop wasting time trying to find excuses or areas to shift the blame. Instead, focus on reducing worthless noise from people who never have or never will play any significant role in your life. Then reduce the cacophony of social media. Open up your life to those who matter. Kick open that door, shove fear aside, and get a move on.

Ignore convenient decisions dictated by fear and make the right decisions guided by your inner voice. When this happens, fear will vanish, and you will rule your life. It will also help you life your life in a way that few do – a life doing what you enjoy and one without regrets.

“Forget regret, or life is yours to miss.” – Jonathan Larson