Thoughts on Excellence Free E-Newsletter Series
Volume 23, Issue No. 9
May 1, 2024
By Dan Coughlin
In MWD (Merriam-Webster Dictionary), consciousness is defined as the quality or state of being aware especially of something within oneself, and contemplation is defined as an act of considering with attention.
These two words are extremely important tools in strengthening the health of your essence. They are about awareness and deciding what to do with that awareness.
Two Onions Within A Person
The phrase, “Let’s peel back the onion one layer at a time,” has tremendous relevance in this work. Imagine a person has two onions within himself or herself. One represents the thoughts, emotions, and will that they want to have (virtue), and the other represents the thoughts, emotions, and will they don’t want to have (egotism).
You can do this for yourself. You can write down your own onion of what you want to keep within you and the other onion of what you want to let go of.
In any given situation, work to increase your consciousness, your awareness, of what is happening inside of you. Where are your thoughts, emotions, and will at? Are they the ones you want to keep or to let go of? When you are aware of what is happening within you, you are able to decide what you want to do rather than it continuing on subconsciously.
Essential Walk Questions for You to Consider
Review the past week in terms of your thoughts, emotions, and the direction in which they were heading, and then answer these questions to peel back the layers of the onions to keep what you want to keep and to let go of what you want to let go of.
- Make a list of the thoughts, emotions, and self-direction that you want to keep in your life.
- Go through each item on your list and then contemplate on how you can reinforce it and have more of it in your life. Consider this to be like pasting the layers of your desired onion back on even stronger.
- Make a list of the thoughts, emotions, and self-direction that you don’t want in your life.
- Go through each item on your list, try to trace it back to its origin, and contemplate on letting it go. Make it deliberate decision to move on from it. Consider this to be like peeling back the layers of your undesired onion and letting them go.
Republishing Articles
My newsletters, Thoughts on Excellence, have been republished in approximately 40 trade magazines, on-line publications, and internal publications for businesses, universities, and not-for-profit organizations over the past 20+ years. If you would like to republish all or part of my monthly articles, please send me an e-mail at dan@thecoughlincompany.com with the name of the article you want in the subject heading. I will send you the article in a word document.