So, I am in Florida on a retreat this week. The sun is welcomingly warm. I am spending time looking at my own path to self-actualization, spiritual development and exploring my beliefs. As leaders I think it is important to identify our beliefs and how they impact our actions. Wow! What a week it has been!
Have you ever spent time getting the junk out of your closet? That’s what this feels like…clearing out the junk that I have spent an entire lifetime accumulating between my ears.
I am calling this process "Mindstorming". It is a lot like "Brainstorming" in that I am listing the beliefs that I am becoming aware of. It is also similar to "Mindmapping" because I am trying to trace how I came to believe what I believe. Where did these beliefs come from? How did I accumulate them? Is one belief connected to another?
The resulting process has been a Mindstorm- the junk in my closet has been all stirred up, just like a bunch of desert dirt devils, as I sift and sort my beliefs. And, boy, is it ever dusty in here!
In a previous post, I shared that January is "Reach Your Potential" month. Well, how are we doing so far?
Part of the challenge of reaching our fullest potential is to uncover who we really are- our authentic self– and then live that life. I call all of that uncovering our "personal excavation work". Just like using a great big backhoe in a rock quarry, we need to dig deep into our internal bedrock to discover who we are, what we believe and how to behave to create what we want.
Now, instead of a backhoe messing up your living room, you can use some other tools for your personal excavation work. A tool that I love to use with my clients to help them move closer to becoming their authentic selves is to have them tell "their story".
Telling "their story" can be done on paper or by talking it through. The purpose is to identify their own pieces of the authenticity puzzle. Is there one major theme in their story? What are the high points of their story? What are the lessons to others from their story? Is there a new part to the story that they want to add; to create? Are their behaviors aligned with the story?
After we do our personal excavation work, the task then becomes living in congruence, every minute of every day, with what we know to be true. Living our authentic life- our real life. Getting closer to that potential we are trying to reach.
It is oh, so juicy and satisfying!