EXEMPLIFICATION

Written By Duane Nelson


2 IDEAS FROM ME

  • Exemplification is the embodiment of transformation with the power to change insight into influence. During the final “Elixir Shared” step of the “Return Phase” of the Hero’s Journey, your life, not your words becomes the message.

  • When you live what you’ve discovered with courage, compassion, and authenticity - you create a spark to ignite and multiply other journey’s. Creating this spark requires living in harmony with the following five core truths.

    • You must wake up to your true nature and highest version of yourself.

    • Waking up is not enough. You must live in alignment with your true nature. This requires discovering your signature strengths, defining your highest values and life goals, and implementing a framework of atomic habits that exemplifies your highest values.

    • Peace comes from aligning your perspective with the three universal characteristics of human experience (uncertainty, imperfection, and impermanence).

    • We live in a universe of deeply interdependent opposites (suffering/Joy, love/hate, life/death, etc.). No mud, no lotus. No suffering, no joy. It’s not enough to learn how to be joyful. You must also learn how to suffer well and transform.

    • Five mind states will prevent you from living your best life (Sensual desire, ill will, sloth-torpor, restlessness-worry, & doubt.” Practicing the following five catalysts to awakening and exemplification will transform your life into a message with influence.

2 QUOTES FROM SAGES

  • “Be the change you wish to see in the world.”— Mahatma Gandhi

  • “What you are speaks so loudly, I can’t hear what you say.”— Ralph Waldo Emerson

1 QUESTION FOR YOU TO EXPLORE

  • I visited Thomas Jefferson’s grave at Monticello, Virginia in 2009 and was deeply moved by the following words: “Here was buried Thomas Jefferson. Author of the Declaration of American Independence, of the Statute of Virginia for Religious Freedom, and Father of the University of Virginia.” On his bedroom walls were four paintings of his hero’s. Issac Newton, Thomas Paine, Francis Bacon, and Salome Bearing the Head of St. John the Baptist on a Platter. The first question that popped into my mind was “What will be on my tombstone?” What will your tombstone or obituary say about how you lived your life?

Namaste,

Duane Nelson

Duane Nelson

Ultrajourney Insight is an Anacortes Washington-based non-profit organization providing mindfulness & well-being services designed to ignite the adventure of a lifetime. The founder, Duane Nelson, is a writer, speaker, and teacher with four decades of parenting, wilderness, & international technology leadership. His professional insights come from chemical engineering and automation leadership at Philips, Intel, and Amazon. His adventure insights flow from ultramarathons, mountaineering, canyoneering, and adventure racing in Nepal, Alaska, Colorado, Washington, Oregon, Hawaii, Mexico, British Columbia and Alberta.

https://ultrajourneyinsight.org
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