I IN the EYE

I IN the EYE “I IN THE EYE” empowers and guides individuals to self-discovery!

05/23/2026

“You cannot create the life you are actually capable of when every ounce of your energy is going toward being right instead of being free.”

www.iamopengates.com

SACRIFICE EVERYTHING BUT GIVE UP NOTHINGA Series on Power, Worth & Authentic Identity PART ONEThe Difference BetweenSacr...
05/20/2026

SACRIFICE EVERYTHING BUT GIVE UP NOTHING
A Series on Power, Worth & Authentic Identity

PART ONE
The Difference Between
Sacrifice and Surrender
— Understanding the Paradox —


You have been through things that should have broken you. But here you are. Still reading. Still breathing. Still standing. That is not an accident. That is evidence.


There is a conversation happening inside of you right now that you may not even be fully aware of. It is quiet, but it is constant. It sounds something like this:
"How much more can I give?"
"Is there anything left of me?"
"I feel like I have lost everything — including myself."
If you have ever heard those words in your own mind, this is written for you. Not to tell you that everything is fine. Not to minimize what you have carried. But to offer you something that has the power to shift the entire way you see your story —
A single, radical distinction.
The difference between Sacrifice and Surrender.
Because here is what nobody told you —
Not everything you lost was taken from you. Some of it you laid down on purpose. And that makes you powerful beyond measure.

What Is Sacrifice?
Sacrifice is one of the most misunderstood words in the human experience. We have been conditioned to hear it as loss. As pain. As something to be mourned.
But sacrifice, in its truest form, is an act of supreme authority. Think about it. You cannot sacrifice what you do not own. You cannot offer what is not yours to give. Sacrifice requires agency. It requires that you — consciously or instinctively — make a decision about what matters more.
The parent who works double shifts sacrifices sleep, leisure, and comfort — for love.
The person who leaves a toxic relationship sacrifices familiarity and false security — for freedom.
The dreamer who bets on themselves sacrifices the approval of people who could not see the vision — for purpose.
In every one of these moments, something was released. Something was lost. Something hurt.
But the person doing the releasing was never diminished. They were demonstrated.
Sacrifice reveals character. It does not destroy it.

What Is Surrender?
Surrender is different. And the difference lives not in the action but in the origin.
Surrender does not come from strength deciding what to release.
Surrender comes from exhaustion deciding there is nothing left worth holding.
Surrender sounds like:
"I do not matter enough to fight for this."
"Maybe they were right about me."
"I will just make myself smaller so this stops hurting."
"I give up — not on the situation, but on myself."
Surrender is the moment a person stops sacrificing things for themselves and starts sacrificing themselves.Their voice. Their vision. Their worth. Their truth.
And here is the tragedy —
Most people who gave up on themselves did not do it all at once. They did it in inches. One small concession at a time, until one day they looked in the mirror and barely recognized who was looking back.

The Moment of Revelation
But here is what the pain never told you.
Here is what the hard seasons kept hidden underneath all that noise.
You are still here.
And that means something that cannot be overstated.
Every single thing you sacrificed — the relationships, the illusions, the false versions of yourself you built to survive — it is gone. And yes, some of it hurt to lose. But look at what is still standing.
You.
Not the performance of you. Not the people-pleasing version of you. Not the shrunken, apologetic, make-yourself-fit version of you.
The core of you. The original of you. The you that existed before the world had a single opinion.
That part never left. It cannot leave. Because it was never something you could sacrifice even if you tried —
It is not something you have. It is something you ARE.

The Question Worth Sitting With
What have you been calling "loss" that was actually "liberation?"
What did you release that needed to go? What did you survive that was secretly sculpting you? What did you grieve that was actually making room?
Because when you start to see your story through the lens of sacrifice rather than surrender — everything changes.
You stop being the victim of your own life and you become the author of it.
You stop mourning what is gone and start marveling at what remains.
You stop asking "What happened to me?" and you start declaring —

Everything that needed to go, went. Everything that is me, stayed. I sacrificed everything. But I gave up nothing.

You were not broken by what you lost.
You were revealed by what remained.
And what remained — that quiet, unshakeable, undefeated thing living in the center of your chest right now —
That is the most powerful thing in the room.
Always has been.

Remember To Look In The Mirror And Smile……….. IT’S A GREAT DAY TO BE YOU!!!!!!!
~ CHAD SEWARD ~

www.iamopengates.com

05/08/2026

LETTING GO: Releasing the Weight That Was Never Yours to Carry

There comes a moment when you realize that the heaviness you’ve been dragging wasn’t even yours to begin with. The shame, the guilt, the condemnation, the crushing sense of unworthiness — so much of it was handed to you by people who were broken themselves. They spoke over you in moments of their own pain, their own limitation, their own unhealed places. And somewhere along the way, you picked up their words like stones and tucked them into your pockets, carrying them as if they were truth.
But they were never truth. They were never yours.

Let go of the voices that told you that you didn’t amount to anything. Those words were never a prophecy — they were a projection. Someone looked at you through the lens of their own fear and disappointment and called it a verdict. It wasn’t. You are still here, still standing, still breathing, and that alone is evidence that the verdict was wrong.

Let go of the guilt that has made its home in your chest. Guilt has a purpose — it is meant to lead you toward change, toward repair, toward growth. But when you’ve already learned the lesson, when you’ve already done the work, guilt that lingers past its season becomes a cage. You were doing the best you could with what you knew at the time. That is not a justification — it is simply the truth. And the truth is enough to set you free.

Let go of the shame tied to your unfinished goals, your detoured dreams, your seasons that didn’t look the way you planned. Incompletion is not failure. An interrupted season is not a closed destiny. Some chapters take longer to write. Some harvests come later than expected. The fact that you haven’t arrived yet does not mean you are not on your way.

Let go of the self-condemnation that masquerades as accountability. There is a difference between taking responsibility and punishing yourself endlessly for being human. True accountability says, I see what happened, I own my part, and I move forward with wisdom. Self-condemnation says, I deserve to suffer indefinitely. One leads to freedom. The other leads to bo***ge dressed in the clothing of humility.

Let go of the idea that your worth must be earned. You did not earn the air in your lungs. You did not qualify for the heartbeat in your chest. Worth was woven into you at the moment of your creation — before your first success, before your first failure, before anyone ever had an opinion about who you were or what you would become. You do not have to perform your way into deserving to exist.

Let go of the weight of other people’s choices that somehow became your cross to carry. What was done to you, said to you, withheld from you — those were acts that belonged to others, not assignments meant for you to haul through the rest of your life. You can set them down. Gently. Deliberately. With full permission from the deepest part of who you are.

And let go of the version of yourself that learned to hide in order to survive. Hiding served you once. It kept you safe when safety was scarce. But you are not in that place anymore. You have outgrown the hiding. You are allowed to be seen now — fully, freely, without apology.

Letting go is not a single dramatic moment. It is a daily, sometimes hourly, choice. It is the quiet act of refusing to pick the weight back up when old thoughts come knocking. It is looking in the mirror and choosing to see someone worthy of love, of grace, of a future — instead of someone defined by what they were told, what they lost, or what they left undone.

You are not what happened to you. You are not the sum of your unfinished chapters. You are not the opinion of everyone who misread you. You are whole. You are worthy. You are still becoming — and that is one of the most powerful places a person can ever stand.

So breathe. Release. And walk forward — free.



REMEMBER TO LOOK IN THE MIRROR & SMILE IT’S A GREAT DAY TO BE YOU!



www.iamopengates.com

You Start Understanding Why Silence Matters!!!!!!!Not every moment needs a reaction.Not every feeling needs to be spoken...
05/07/2026

You Start Understanding Why Silence Matters!!!!!!!

Not every moment needs a reaction.

Not every feeling needs to be spoken.
Not every thought needs to be followed.
Not every situation needs your immediate response.

But the old self struggles with silence.

Because silence feels uncomfortable when you’ve spent your whole life trying to explain yourself, defend yourself, or control how things are being perceived.

So the mind rushes to fill the space.

Talking.
Explaining.
Reacting.
Trying to make sure nothing feels uncertain or unresolved.

But the deeper you go within yourself………….

The more you begin to understand the power of silence.

Because silence lets you see.

When you stop immediately reacting………..
You start noticing what’s actually happening within you.

You notice the urge to defend.
The need to correct.
The fear of being misunderstood.
The pressure to make someone see your side.

And instead of instantly acting on those things……………

You sit with them.

That’s where awareness grows.

Not in the reaction.

In the pause before it.

And what you start realizing is this………….

Most of the things you used to say weren’t coming from clarity.

They were coming from discomfort.

Discomfort with not being understood.
Discomfort with uncertainty.
Discomfort with not feeling in control of how you were being seen.

So the reaction wasn’t really communication.

It was self-protection.

But silence exposes that.

Silence slows everything down enough for you to actually see what’s moving inside of you before you hand it to someone else.

And the more comfortable you become with silence………..

The less reactive you become.

Not because you’re suppressing yourself.

Because you’re no longer being controlled by every impulse that rises within you.

Now when you speak………..

It comes from clarity instead of urgency.

Presence instead of pressure.

Awareness instead of reaction.

And that changes the way people feel around you.

Because your words stop carrying the weight of needing something back.

They become honest.
Simple.
Real.

So don’t be afraid of silence.

Silence isn’t emptiness.

Silence is where you finally begin hearing what’s been buried underneath all the noise.

Remember To Look In The Mirror And Smile………… IT’S A GREAT DAY TO BE YOU!!!!!!!
~ CHAD SEWARD ~

www.iamopengates.com

You Stop Looking for the Enemy Outside of You………..At first, the mind always wants someone to blame.Someone who caused it...
05/06/2026

You Stop Looking for the Enemy Outside of You………..

At first, the mind always wants someone to blame.

Someone who caused it.
Someone who triggered it.
Someone who made you feel the way you feel.

Because as long as the problem stays outside of you……… you never have to fully look within yourself!!!

And for a while, that feels easier.

It feels easier to point at people.
At circumstances.
At life.

“This is why I’m angry.”
“This is why I’m hurt.”
“This is why I can’t feel peace.”

But eventually……… if you stay honest with yourself long enough……..

You begin to see something.

The greatest conflict was never outside of you.

It was the war happening within you.

The constant resistance.
The constant fear.
The constant need to defend an identity that never felt secure to begin with.

That’s what created the suffering.

Not life itself.

And this realization changes the way you see people.

Because now, instead of immediately making someone the enemy………….

You begin recognizing that most people are simply reacting from their own unconscious pain, fear, conditioning, and confusion.

Just like you did!!!!!!!!

That doesn’t mean you allow harmful behavior.
That doesn’t mean you lose discernment.
That doesn’t mean boundaries disappear.

It just means hatred starts dissolving.

Because you’re no longer trapped in the illusion that peace will come once everyone else changes.

You realize peace begins within you first.

And from that place……….

You stop feeding the need for enemies!!!!!!!

You stop needing someone to be “wrong” so you can feel “right.”

You stop carrying resentment like it’s protecting you.

Because you finally see—

The person holding onto the anger is the one carrying the weight of it.

And the moment you see that clearly…………

Forgiveness starts making sense in a completely different way.

Not as something you do for them.

But as something you allow within yourself so you can stop carrying what was never meant to define you.

That’s freedom!!!!!!!

Not controlling people.
Not fixing everyone.
Not making sure life goes your way.

Just no longer being internally controlled by what’s happening outside of you.

That’s when the fight begins to end.

Not outside.

Within.

Remember To Look In The Mirror And Smile………. IT’S A GREAT DAY TO BE YOU!!!!!!
~ CHAD SEWARD ~

www.iamopengates.com

05/06/2026

Your world is just a mirror. 🪞

Everything you see around you — the relationships, the opportunities, the struggles, the blessings — is a reflection of what’s living inside of you.

The world isn’t happening to you. It’s happening through you.

You are the projector. Life is the screen. 👀📺

This is why faith isn’t something you reach for in the future — faith is knowing in the NOW. It’s walking in full awareness that who you are today is shaping what shows up tomorrow. The way you speak about yourself. The way you think about yourself when no one is watching. The stories you keep rehearsing in private. All of it is casting an image onto the screen of your reality.

So ask yourself honestly:

👉 What are you projecting?

Are you speaking lack — and then wondering why there’s never enough?

Are you thinking doubt — and then confused about why doors won’t open?

Are you identifying with your past — and then surprised that you keep reliving it?

You don’t attract what you want. You attract what you are.

This isn’t about pretending everything is perfect. It’s about taking radical ownership of your inner world, because your outer world has no choice but to reflect it back.

Shift the identity. Shift the narrative. Shift the self-talk.

Because the moment you change what’s on the inside — what you see on the outside has to change too.

That’s not theory. That’s spiritual law.

Faith is not waiting to see it to believe it. Faith is being it NOW — and trusting that the screen will catch up.
Who you are is what presents itself. Start being who you’re called to be today.



www.iamopengates.com

You Realize How Much Suffering Came From Resisting What Was…………Most suffering doesn’t come from the moment itself.It com...
05/05/2026

You Realize How Much Suffering Came From Resisting What Was…………

Most suffering doesn’t come from the moment itself.

It comes from arguing with the moment.

Wanting it to be different.
Wanting people to act different.
Wanting yourself to feel different.
Wanting reality to match the picture in your head instead of what’s actually here.

That resistance creates tension.

And most people live in that tension constantly without even realizing it.

Fighting what already happened.
Fighting what someone said.
Fighting what they feel.
Fighting where they are in life.

Always trying to mentally move reality somewhere other than where it is.

But reality doesn’t move because the mind argues with it.

It just creates suffering inside the person resisting it.

And the deeper you begin seeing…

The more obvious this becomes.

You start noticing how quickly the mind tries to reject the present moment.

“This shouldn’t be happening.”
“They shouldn’t act like this.”
“I shouldn’t feel this way.”
“Things should be different.”

But says who?

Most of the time, that’s not truth.

That’s expectation.

That’s attachment.

That’s the mind trying to control life so it can feel safe.

But life was never meant to be controlled like that.

And the moment you stop fighting what already is…

Something softens within you.

Not because you suddenly like everything.

Not because you approve of everything.

But because you stop wasting your life arguing with reality.

Now you can actually see clearly.

Now you can respond instead of react.

Now you can move from awareness instead of resistance.

And that changes the entire experience.

Because acceptance doesn’t mean becoming passive.

It means seeing clearly first.

It means no longer losing yourself fighting a moment that’s already here.

And from that clarity…

Real action becomes possible.

Not emotional reaction.
Not unconscious behavior.
Not projection.

Just clear movement from a clear place.

So when resistance rises…

Notice it.

Notice the argument happening inside of you.

Notice the demand for life to be different before you allow yourself to be okay.

And then pause.

Because peace was never hiding in controlling the moment.

Peace begins the moment you stop fighting what already is.

Remember To Look In The Mirror And Smile………. IT’S A GREAT DAY TO BE YOU!!!!!!
~ CHAD SEWARD ~

www.iamopengates.com

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Wichita Falls, TX

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