Rae's Word: Engage

I must apologize for the delay in sharing my thoughts... a subsequent post will further explore the existential underpinnings of this delay and how it relates to Eat, Pray, Love. For now, it must suffice to say that life has been a busy and extremely enjoyable grand tour of internships! In fact, my word, which I reveal in the title of this post, did arise from my recent journey to the west coast.

To expand further: Following my adventure in Long Beach (another story entirely), I attended the Seattle VA (acronym = 'Veterans Affairs' Medical Center) for their psychology internship open house. There, the training director spoke at length about the philosophy of their training program, which is essentially that they support the development of excellence - not just competence - and they do this in several ways, the description of which I will not bore you at this time. The point is that there is distinction to be made between competence and excellence, and it is on this point that I digress.

The "space" between competence and excellence, I believe, is comprised of how and how much one engages and is engaging! (There's my word!!!) To be truly successful, I must whole-heartedly "engage" in my life and the pursuit of my goals.. I must SHOW UP - rain, sleet, snow, etc... My pursuit must not be a blind or desperate striving for external validation. Rather I strive to be worthy of excellence, which is where "being engaging" comes in. "Being engaging" to me means that I act with humility, empathy, and compassion, so that others have room to welcome me and support me along my journey. So that I do not, in my effort to achieve, compromise my integrity and humanity.

So, this is my word: Engage

______ + Engage + Achieve = _______