A lover of literature and artistic expressions, Kandice Phillips delivers Manifestations, a fusion of poems, prose and essays that tell stories of life, love and everything in between. Her thoughts, ideas and experiences leap from the pages and gape from her soul bringing you on a journey of consciousness and an ever evolving sense of purpose.
Excerpt
Best Self Ever
We hear the phrase often “Be Your Best Self”. Whether it be on social media networks, books, magazines, in music or in reference to living an awakened life, this phrase is everywhere. For me just like most people, I see the reference and while I’m sure it registers subconsciously, I generally process it as a notion to do better and be better.
I often play in invitational poker events where I am faced with 200 to 400 competitors who are all there with the same exact goal. We are all present for an event and each one us plans to win the game. At a recent tournament as I began to sit in my seat and prepare my mind to be agile and patient, I became consumed with the energy of best and better. As I sat there wiggling in my seat, in a game where body language and expressions are very important, I realized more than ever the symbolism between recreation and daily life. I've been meditating and really digesting the idea of what it means to be your best self.
The way I figure, the only difference between the most successful and the mediocre is not necessarily skill or some predetermined order in the cosmos. It is my hypothesis that the people we classify as most successful are that way because they consistently show up as their best selves each and every day. In all aspects of our lives whether it be professional, personal or recreational we must keep in mind that there is someone sitting next to us or standing beside us that has set out to conquer. They have showed up at your moment to shine, and when they do, it is then that success is achieved. So in my moment, as I looked around during my tournament, I determined a few things early on.
The first thing was that there are some funny looking people in this world. I mean really funny looking and some even look a bit extraterrestrial. The second thing is that before I left my house, before I even decided to participate in the challenge and before I would meet the competitors I would face at the poker tournament, I had already manifested the outcome with my words and with thoughts of success in my mind. The last thing is that I realized that my absolute best self is already equipped with all if the tools needed to succeed at this event and in life in general. For me, the only real task at hand is to just show up and be present.
I am certain that our attitudes about excellence and proficiency predetermine the outcome. If I think that I'm a regular chic and can just run to the store wearing a head scarf and pajamas then that determines my experience. It tells everyone that I come in contact with that I'm a commoner and to treat me as such. Now personally the head scarf thing is a pet peeve of mine just because it’s a bit tacky and I’m far too vain to even consider it. It not only defies my image of self, it even tells people who had higher expectations of me that my true self is actually what they see and not what they thought about me.
I am not all suggesting that your best self is photoshoot ready at any moment but I am merely pointing out that when we take the extra time and avoid cutting corners, our true and best self manifests success. Being your best self should be exemplified in areas much more than our appearance, but in every component of our lives.
When we show up ready with our best foot forward, it not only gives us a leg up on our competition, but it sets us up for excellence to be manifested. It says to the universe that I am equipped and ready to embody everything that is great and I am an example of preparedness and my input will manifest the ultimate output.
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