It’s confusing isn’t it? Anyone who has been traveling the road toward their own personal self improvement or spiritual enlightenment can quickly attest to the fact that it’s not a particularly easy journey. We quickly find that our projected well-defined path is suddenly obscured by the glare of thousands of spotlights – all sweeping our pitiful little road and beckoning to us. “This way!” “Follow me!” “I am the true way!” “Yo Butt-Head, over here!”

We read the articles and books, listen to the tapes and CD’s, take the courses, watch some videos and maybe even go to a seminar or two. We can frequently spot some similarities in the foundation concepts we’re presented – and sometimes we can’t. There are times when the differences in approaches to self improvement and spiritual enlightenment are glaringly obvious – even to the point of offering conflicting or opposing theories.

So where’s the truth? Which path is reality and which is fantasy? Are these people lying about this stuff – or are they just screwed up? How can there be so many different “correct” ways to transition to a better life? Spiritually speaking, how can the reports and guidance presumably offered by one or more channeled guides or spirits differ so greatly from the reports and guidance presented by other ambassadors from the “other side”?

It looks terribly messy doesn’t it? Well to be honest it is – if we are concentrating on identifying a complete, fully-assembled, ready-to-go package of “truth” that we can insert smoothly into our little lives. I hate to be the bearer of sad tidings but life ain’t no Sears catalogue. (And yes, they still really do print them – in the form of specialty catalogues…) There’s just no way to order a “Solution to My Quest for a Better Life” in the exact style, size and color that will fit your individual frame. Why? Well because – no other person (coach, motivator, writer, program designer, medium, etc.) is you. No one else has your genetics and collage of experiences. No other individual has your potential and interests. No one!

Life and the search for any type of personal betterment is entirely a do-it-yourself project. It’s our personal jigsaw puzzle that we’re required to assemble without even knowing what the final picture will look like. Oh yeah, the other little detail is that we are also required to find all of the puzzle pieces that are scattered seemingly haphazardly throughout our existence here on planet earth. Dang – this ain’t easy!

And to tell the truth, it hasn’t been easy for all of the individuals and organizations whose programs, courses, seminars, articles and books you’ll find on your journey toward your destination. They all have searched for the puzzle pieces just as you are doing. What they’ve found, they’ve assembled to create their image of “truth”. This image may resemble other images created by other individuals or organizations. It may not. It doesn’t mean it’s wrong or created to be intentionally misleading. It’s just a different picture.

Our challenge then, is to use the pictures assembled by others, identify those individual puzzle pieces from those pictures that we feel we can use in our own life picture and slide them into place. One piece from here – another from there. One at a time. Piece by piece.

And somewhere in this life-long, puzzle solving experience, our own personal “life picture” will begin to take shape. No, we’ll never find all of the pieces to our puzzle – but we can find most of them. And when we do, we’ll be able to look at our picture and know that it is ours. It’s our personal solution to life’s jigsaw puzzle. Our personal picture. Our personal truth.

How many of your puzzle pieces have you been able to find?

Author's Bio: 

Gene Simmons, through NuPathz.com, provides an easy reading self-help blog, articles, quotations, thoughts and links along with affordable self-help and self improvement books & materials - all designed to help folks find the road to a more enjoyable lifestyle, to pass on some of life’s “secrets for survival” in a chaotic world & offer a few smiles along the way. It's a down-to-earth, simple approach to discovering a better life. You can visit Gene at http://www.nupathz.com