A not-so-famous actor from a small-sized town in the USA, was one day hit hard by a shocking self-realization. It hit him hard that he was fooling himself and not happy playing all the different roles. He had pretended for years that all was well. When he was much younger, he was sure that “Acting” he chose, or maybe just followed, would bring him happiness and contentment. He was positive it would. But here he was, today, so very unhappy and bored acting, playing other people.

He sought help from his friends and made appointments with experts to help him sort through his problem. They tried to help him, but their solutions seemed silly. “Go join a club or start a new business, a new love, a relationship, and surely things would be ok. This made him even more unhappy, for he did not get answers that helped. Sitting at home one day, he went into his closet to retrieve his box of previous roles he had played over the years, maybe there would be a clue in them. Flipping through the scripts gave him no satisfying resolve. He got even more depressed.

Sensing he was in big trouble. Sitting alone, he reviewed all the answers given and realized they were in the very same boat he was in, but did not realize it. They were pretending all was well, but their frightened faces told another story.

Finding a true book that his grandmother had given to him many, many years ago, which said most people were sheep, and only by becoming a true individual would he find happiness and contentment. It bluntly said he had to earn everything by doing hard, personal work on seeing his nature as it really is and not as he imagined. Something resonated deep inside. He went to his closet, gathered his past scripts, and threw them into the trash can. “Maybe I made a mistake tossing them out,” but decided to not retrieve them. He had had enough.

He made a vow to himself that he had to change the kind of person he was. Sensing he had to become true. Going to work on himself by observing himself in action. Results came, he started to feel better inside. Real happy feelings arrived. He was in shock. Had he found a secret?

Vernon Howard’s teachings are all about inner change and dropping weights you are carrying around that you might presently not know are een there. Dropping useless ideas and actions is a great way to spend your day. Getting tired of living the old life is so necessary for inner change. Vernon has these great quotes that anyone can use for personal growth. “Get off the stage.” “Resistance to the disturbance is the disturbance.” “Change yourself, not the world.”