Role models are often our greatest Teachers without trying to be. We see in others examples of what we are striving to achieve in our own lives; we emulate those who exhibit and live up to our high ideals and strong values. Role models illuminate the pathway we are set upon, as we follow in the footsteps of those who have gone before.
Who have been your greatest Role Models or Wayshowers? Spiritual prophets and faith leaders demonstrate the canonical Wayshower form. Religions have formed around the heroic spiritual values of their founders. If your role model is a spiritual Wayshower, what have you applied to your own attitudes and behaviors based on the values your role model has exhibited?
“What would XXX do now? (Where XXX might be Christ or Buddha or Mother Theresa or the Mahanta or Muhammed, or your parent or a primary role model teacher or friend.) You might ask yourself this question when you seek to arrive at a positive decision or course of action that resonates with your deepest values and beliefs.
Some of what I have gained from my Role Models (I invite you to write your own list and I welcome your sharing in Comments or stories):
- Practice, practice, practice to attain self-discipline (from my fencing coach in college when I was on what became a highly successful intercollegiate fencing team);
- Edit, edit, edit to arrive at writing that ‘sings’ (from writing books and teachers);
- Contemplate, read deeply, dream to arrive at spiritual awareness and realizations (from spiritual authors and Guides);
- Do not sell yourself short, go for your Dreams and persist to manifest your ideals to advance creatively and to be of service (from several teachers and author role models);
- Accept, forgive, love unconditionally to attain a balanced viewpoint free of negativity (from my pets and closest friends and family).
My Sophia
So also consider, in what ways are you and can you be a role model Wayshower for others? Learning from role models and applying these lessons is a reciprocal process that allows us to be of service to others as well. So remember to be a positive role model, allowing your attitudes and actions to inspire those around you, whether in public or with your closest loved ones.
images (except My Sophia) are gratefully from pixabay.com
You never know who is watching and listening, and what their needs might be that you could help them with, even unknowingly. In fact this mode of being a role model simply by the example of your highest or most mindful attitude or behavior is the highest order of teaching for its humility bespeaks the authenticity of the role model’s overall effectiveness in practice.
Better Endings to You!
Better Endings 