Outsmart Chaos 127: The Word of the Year
Becoming Wasn’t What I Thought It Was
At the beginning of 2025, my word was becoming.
I thought it meant growth.
Progress.
Moving toward something better.
I imagined becoming as addition, new skills, new clarity, visible momentum.
That’s not what it became.
What Becoming Actually Required
As the year unfolded, it stopped feeling like movement, and started feeling like release.
Letting go of identities that no longer fit.
Walking away from paths that looked right on paper.
Choosing alignment over acceleration.
Becoming required subtraction.
The Quiet Test of Identity
I felt this clearly one night out with friends.
The conversation was fine, until it wasn’t.
One friend measured himself by proximity, the people he knew, the names he could reference. His identity lived in association.
Another spoke almost exclusively about his children. Every opening became an opportunity to redirect the focus back to them. He needed to prove something.
What struck me wasn’t their behavior.
It was my response.
I didn’t feel the need to compete.
I didn’t need to talk about cars, connections, or success metrics. I wasn’t trying to win the room.
That’s when I realized something had shifted.
What No Longer Drains Me
I don’t need:
Fancy cars
Big-name friends
A flourishing business to justify myself
But I did notice something else.
When I don’t know something, when I’m not informed, when I can’t explain or understand, that’s where my identity still gets tested.
Becoming didn’t remove every insecurity.
It revealed the ones that still matter.
And clarity begins there.
RZLTE | Strength under pressure. Clarity through chaos.
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