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Davis Journal

At times

May 23, 2024 10:16AM ● By John Waterbury

At times, it would appear that we all get lost.

We lose our direction, we lose our motivation, and nothing seems to make any sense.

When this occurs, it is often because there is confusion with one or more of the following areas: 

What is the purpose of our existence?

What is the role we have chosen to play in life?

What kind of legacy are we creating?

When we get lost, it simply means we have temporarily forgotten the answers to these questions.

Ironically, it is through the process of finding these answers, that we find ourselves, once again.

There are lessons to be learned, tears to be shed, people to be loved, and beauty to be shared.

There is wisdom to be gained from experiencing the exhilaration and freedom of the light, and there is emotional depth to be gained from tolerating the “intolerability” of the darkness.

Life is full of these lessons.  Life is never wasted.

But sometimes, the apparent futility of learning these lessons makes us believe 

that we should give up, that it’s a waste of time to keep trying because 

this is as good as it gets

And once again, with this kind of thinking, it’s easy to get lost. The fact is, we are “becoming,” and we only “become” by beginning, again and again.

And if we ever believe that it’s too late to begin again, then we rob ourselves of that which we might have been.

We need to remember that no one gets it right the first time!

There is always a price to be paid for insight.

But this process of “becoming” requires much more than just concern, more than commitment, and even more than determination. It requires a revolution!  

And because the breadth and depth of our patterns often span generations,

it may take forever to “become.”

As a result, nothing short of a revolution will have the power to redirect our lives.

One of the fundamental elements in this revolutionary process, and the standard by which all things are clarified, is self-mastery.

In each of us, there is the best of us, and there is the worst of us. Self-mastery is developed when we recognize that while both of these possibilities exist, we find ourselves consistently making the conscious decision to choose the higher road.

Self-mastery allows us to listen to, and evaluate, what’s going on in the world around us, and then to integrate the wisdom that we’ve been prepared to accept.

Self-mastery also allows us to be aware of what’s going on inside of us, to envision what our potential is, and to grow into who we are capable of “becoming.”


When viewed from this perspective, the development of self-mastery becomes                                                     one of the essential defining elements in life.


John Waterbury is a retired Clinical Mental Health Counselor who has lived in Utah since 1984 when he moved to Bountiful with his wife and four children. Since then, he has written a weekly column for several years for the Davis County Clipper titled “The Dear John Letters” which was also used throughout the intermountain West focusing on addiction and mental health problems. This new column will focus on mental health and life management issues.