I have had a spent half my life trying to work through mental torment as the main focus of my life with no stability because of it.
Then, because of no results and growing financial wreckage, I decided to just takes medication and isolate in intensive work to at least gain a sort of stability and progress.

This is when I met someone who became a life and work partner. We became the best work partners because we both just wanted to work all the time and had the same work ethics.

I worked in restaurants and that is how we met. I came to hate working in restarants but didn't know what else to do. We opened a restaurant together which had the benefit of offering new opportunities and experiences not accessible as an employee. We operated it for 8 years before selling it.

A lot happened during and after. But long story short, the stability I gained and experience allowed me to discover my true potential and nature.

We are not together anymore despite the affection and goodwill we had for each other. We never were able to connect beyond work and realized we were not going in the same direction in life anymore.

Being willing to admit this opened unexpected possibilities that align perfectly with my true nature I was able to discover through doing what I was able to do when I didn't know what else I could do. The experience gained is also very valuable. I I now am with the first person with whom I'm able to connect on so many levels that we both benefit immensly. We have experienced exponential progress like never before from being together for now 2 years.

I'm now on the journey of living from my art.

Here is a key insight I got that I now understand has been holding me back on breaking through some barriers I have that prevents me from achieving real success.

It is trusting that I do not need to control how I'm interpreted to produce the good that is in my intentions. I can express my nature openly and trust it will reach those who are meant for it.

An important part of my mental turmoil was believing that exposing my real nature and communicating openly had high potential of being harmful and dangerous for others. My intent was to do good but I feared being understood otherwise and therefore create irreversible damage.

You can check my blog post on my website titled with the slug
how-to-become-your-authentic-self

It that describes how I evolved through the decades to understand this and the how the different stages of my life helped in this process.