What if I told you that every single person that crossed your path today is leading a double life?  Or a triple life?

Think about your own life.  Are you the same person at work who you are at home?  I know there have been days in my career when people who “know me best” would not have recognized the person I was being that day.

Person 1
Who you really are lives within your “soul”.  I put soul in quotes because maybe it’s your heart. Or maybe it’s your mind’s eye.  Or the id.  Or whatever you call it.  There is a real person in there and you know that person.  It is who you are when you are at your best – maybe loving, maybe caring, powerful.  Generous and forgiving.  You know who you are

Person 2
The other extreme.  This is how you seem to be when you are stressed.  When the kids are screaming.  When the meeting is going south.  You are frustrated, angry, selfish, insecure.  This is when you are at your worst.  Good news – this is not really you.  These things are the armor and the weight of the armor you have acquired over the years.  These ways of being protect you from your greatest fears.  Other good news – you get to take that armor off if you want.

Person 3
Person 3 is somewhere in the middle.  This is who I was at work most of the time.  I’d learned to control the anger and frustration.  I’d learned techniques for managing people.  I was generally happy when things were going well.  Not so happy when they weren’t.  Person 4 through Person 100 are variations on Person 3.

Recognize yourself in any of these people?  Did you think you were the only one who were multiple people?  Well, you’re not.  In fact all those people you experienced today?  There were a lot more of them than you thought…