I picked up my bags in Port Arthur, Texas, 1964. One bag was filled with my circumstances, things I did not choose and could not control: an environment of poverty, drug addiction and mental illness. The other bag was left empty for me to fill with the challenges that I would inevitably create for myself. This was my baggage: circumstance and challenge. Along the journey of my life I came across a bag for storing the tools I needed as I navigated my journey. My experience taught me that my journey was as much about living to learn as it was about learning to live.

Today, I have a different perspective of those experiences and a much clearer perspective of how I have spent most of my adult life overcoming the scripts that were blocking my personal growth. I had to overcome my PA mentality. I had to overcome my interpretation of my experience. My baggage was heavy and I just kept making it heavier. I still find myself stuffing a few bricks in every now and then. That’s what happens when you are unaware of the power that your circumstances and the burden of your baggage play in life. I may be unusual, but it took several direct encounters with brick walls before I actually gained became semi-conscious. It is amazing what you learn when you finally decide to think about what you are doing and attempt to understand your patterns of behavior and their sources. It took me a while to understand that I was the only thing I could change. That was difficult because I did not realize what my needs were. I did not realize the drivers behind my emotions and my worldview.

Several scholars and practitioners have directly or indirectly addressed in their research the concept of consciousness. My interpretation of their works leads me to conclude that, as human beings, we are challenged by our ability to achieve and maintain awareness of our thinking and how that thinking impacts our experience with the world. If we are not conscious of the fears, values, and biases that drive our behavior and actively strive to close the gap between who we say we are and who we actually are, we risk never becoming our most effective selves.

Another way of looking at consciousness is as a pattern developed over time. In other words, if I live my life as a learner I gain more knowledge and insight about others and myself. Conversely, if I live my life deflecting new information I don’t learn, and I don’t grow. Over the years I have achieved varying results from engaging in the practices I believed would get me the results I wanted. Sometimes I got the outcome I was looking for, but most often I did not. When I did not get what I expected, I blamed others and acted as if I was a victim of the world. Of course, nothing was ever wrong with me, and everything was wrong with the people, process, organization, technology, etc.

My ability to partner with others and increase the level of connection with my friends, family, clients, and business associates have all increased as a result of increased consciousness. But remember, it is a journey. I believe it is a destination that is never reached and a practice that is never perfected. The reason why I believe this is because the more successful I am at being conscious the more complacent I become about the practice of being conscious. It is a constant struggle to anticipate complacency before it sets in.

My experiences have helped me spend more time on the positive end of the consciousness continuum than the unconscious end. Beware! Being conscious without being personally aligned, can lead to internal conflict and will negatively impact your ability to be your most effective self.