Do you ever feel tempted to make decisions based on what others expect from you, instead of from your own truth? How did you know it when you were living in alignment with your purpose? Below is an excerpt from Wayne Dyer’s memoir, I Can See Clearly Now, a New York Times bestseller, which he wrote the year before his passing. What feelings and impressions does it bring up within you? Share in the comments below.
It’s the fall of 1987 and I have been on the road a lot these past two years doing both a hardcover and a paperback tour for my parenting book, What Do You Really Want for Your Children?
I feel that my life is taking on an entirely new purpose and direction, though I’m unHow I Found the Courage to Write My Truth able to define precisely what that is.
I receive many requests to speak at church services all across the country, and have been giving a lot of speeches in humanistically-oriented multidenominational churches for the past several years.
It seems that the messages in my books resonate with these church memberships, and the congregations are eager to attend my seminars and talks at their Sunday-morning services.
At a Unity or Religious Science church, it’s just as likely that a sermon is on the writing of Ralph Waldo Emerson, Abraham Lincoln, Buddha, or Lao-tzu as on the direct teachings of Jesus Christ.
These Christian churches emphasize spirituality and a God-realized life, rather than the more traditional religious dogma, and people from all religious persuasions are always welcome.
I’m excited to be considered a spiritual teacher. This is new for me, since I have pretty much eschewed any specific religion.
I see myself as a global person without any interest in excluding anyone.
I am honored to be giving “sermon-like” talks at church services, and to be associated with the likes of Emerson, Thoreau, Leo Buscaglia, Neville, and other transcendentalist teachers.
The more I speak at these spiritual gatherings, the more I want to write about personal and spiritual transformation.
I feel as if I am being pulled in a new direction, and I’m not the one doing the pulling. Something way bigger than little me seems to be taking over the reins of my life.
I have now published five books, all of which have been extremely successful, and my agent Artie Pine has some ideas about capitalizing on this commercial success by my writing two books that he’s certain will be very lucrative for me and for my publisher.
He suggests I write a self-help book on using my commonsense principles to be more effective at making money, and then a follow-up book telling people how to have a great sex life using the no-limit ideas I’ve previously written about.
Thanks to Dr. Ruth Westheimer’s appearances on radio and television, a new age of freer, franker talk about sex has been ushered in.
My agent and publisher both feel that we’d have runaway bestsellers if I authored books on money and sex, and all concerned would harvest a financial bonanza.
As Artie tells me, “Your publisher is willing to do a two-book deal that will make you a fortune. I have given them the idea for these books. Just say the word, and I will finalize this deal for you.”
I listen carefully to Artie’s proposal and immediately tell him that there’s no way that I am interested or willing to undertake such a proposal.
I explain…