T-minus nine days and counting.
The teachings I offered myself over the past couple of days were solid teachings, but I have to admit that it's not easy to be a good teacher to myself. I'm just a little too accustomed to being wrapped up in Student Ben's struggles to maintain a solid Teacher Ben perspective.
Both a wise teacher and a wise student know that sometimes you have to call in reinforcements. I make sure that I still reach out to Jerry for help, because his teachings have made such a vast difference in my life and still do.
But I'm also calling in some help from outside. I'm rereading a self-help book called You Are a Badass by Jen Sincero. She's a life coach, doing work not dissimilar from what I ultimately see myself doing. You Are a Badass is every bit as cheeseball as it sounds, but is also simultaneously so good and so dead-on that Teacher Ben nods in assent at every chapter he reads, while Student Ben sees the potential in the teachings and has to fight not to sprint into the safe space of resisting everything he sees there, lest he actually embody the changes he wants to see in his life. Sadly, it is Student Ben who needs to do the work here. Teacher Ben can only help keep him on track.
Here's how much this book resonates with me: I intend to travel as lightly as possible for my trip, but I'm planning on bringing along a hard-copy of the book, in order to read it again and again and again until I believe it. Since the book preaches that to change your life, you have to believe in the not-yet-seen--Jerry says the same, and I have enough experience now that I do as well--then I have to find a way to practice the faith that I've been lacking.
One possible way to do so? Carrying around a self-help book as a vade mecum through weeks of travel through Europe. That seems to suggest a certain intention. If I were my teacher, I'd recommend it.
Should you be interested in the book, here's a link to it: You Are a Badass
Yes, this is an affiliate link with Amazon. But please know that I don't take making recommendations like this lightly.