Part of 3: Know You Have Choices
There’s no greater gift than to honor your life’s calling.
It’s why you were born. And how you become most truly alive.
Oprah Winfrey
Welcome to the third and final installment of this three part series, 3 Strategies Successful People Use to Leverage Personal Awareness to Live a Life of Purpose.
If you will remember in the first installment, many of the obstacles you encounter in your life are the result of the opinions and beliefs of others you have unintentionally embraced as your own. The importance of understanding yourself was discussed in part one, as were the benefits of being able to identify and articulate your identity, in order to be able to present your best self to others. The importance of knowing why you do the things you do was discussed in part two and in this final installment realizing you have a choice provides you the final piece of freedom.
Without a true understanding of yourself, why you make the decisions you make, and without a realization you have a choice you can blindly exist in a life that feels meaningless, empty, and unfulfilling.
“No matter how long you have traveled in the wrong direction,
you always have the choice to turn around.”
Anonymous
Step one towards living a life on purpose is knowing yourself, step two is knowing your why, and step three is realizing you have a choice in how your life plays out. We have been taught to play the hand they were dealt. We are not encouraged to take risks. We put the feelings of others ahead of our own. Most of us, male or female, have been given, unintentionally, a blueprint for mediocracy. To go to school, get a job with a good salary, pension, and benefits. To take the easy route. To follow the crowd and accept that “You can’t always have what you want.”
“I discovered I always had choices and sometimes
it’s only a choice of attitude.”
Judith M. Knowlton
Successful people, the ones we look at that seem to have it all, understand they have a choice and they exercise the right to make decisions that work in their favour. To leverage their self-awareness to create a meaningful existence. Their lives are not void of challenges but they choose their reactions and do not accept they are victims of circumstances. They accept responsibility for their actions and their attitudes. They do not choose to waste time on thoughts or activities that do not support their life goals.
One of the secrets to creating a meaningful existence is realizing that you have a choice. You have to realize you have a choice because society has conditioned it out of you. There is a neurological path created, which is strengthened, every time you hear and believe what you can’t do, where we can’t go, and who we can’t become. This pathway actually causes you to shut down.
As mentioned in part two you have been conditioned to be a consumer, chasing the ever moving goal post of happiness. According to Simon T Baily our search for external happiness, without conscious intention, can see us putting our ladder against the wrong house. After a divorce he realized that he had bought the house but he had lost the home, he had success but no significance, he had power but he had no purpose, he had money but he had no meaning.
Having something different is your responsibility. Choosing to show up as your authentic self means being willing to do the internal work. To dig deep. To remember and accept who you are at our core, at your centre.
It is not who you are that holds you back from living your life passionately with purpose. It is not who you are that shuts down your talent. It is who you think you are not that holds you back. In order to change your life you must first recognize that you have a choice.
“You have two choices in life you can dissolve into
the mainstream, or you can be distinct.
To be distinct you must be different.
To be different you must strive to be what
no one else but you can be.”
Alan Ashley-Pitt
When you attempt change your logical, conscious mind will try to stop you. It will evaluate change based on the
small, limited scope that it has. It will tell you that you don’t have enough time, enough money, and enough courage to make this happen.
Your subconscious mind on the other hand. The mind that waves the magic wand of imagination and possibilities runs on an automatic program. While it welds the power of creation it also will resort to past memories, patterns, or behaviours first due to efficiency. It will pull out all of the stops in order to keep you stuck in your current life because your subconscious mind sees change as a threat. Its job is to keep you safe and alive and therefore it does not willingly accept this change. You must make a conscious choice for change.
It is a conscious decision, coupled with intentional action, that allows you to successfully leverage the power of your mind in your favour but you must override the current program. You must be dedicated and repetitive in your actions because this is how your mind learns. You must be willing to do a mental housekeeping, declutter, be selective, and keep only what you are going to use. To pick and choose thoughts that align with who you are and delete the ones that don’t. You must find the courage to discover your truth. To stop focusing on who you are not and begin putting all of your energy into who you are.
You cannot live passionately alive with purpose if you don’t know who you are and what you want out of life. Rather than search outside yourself for the answer you are seeking, relax, and look within. Choose to be yourself, each and every day, both professionally and personally. Take the time to check in once in a while, to make sure that you are on target. Is your energy level high? Are you still happy with what you are doing? If the answer has changed, then you need to change. You are not locked in. Your life choices are not permanent.
Taking care of yourself is anything but selfish. When your values are being honoured, your skills and talents used, when you understand and use your personal blueprint to create a fulfilling and rewarding life everyone one around you benefits. You feel happier, fulfilled, understood, appreciated, energized, and supported.
A life of purpose is about living your life to its fullest. It is not a single moment of truth, where suddenly, everything becomes permanently clear. It is about identifying your gifts, and knowing your strengths, and what your contribution can be, so that you can choose to enjoy every opportunity along the way.
To recap the 3 Strategies Successful People Use to Leverage Personal Awareness to Live a Life of Purpose include knowing who they are, understanding their why, and they realizing and exercising choice.
“Everything in your life is a reflection of a choice you have made
If you want a different result make a different choice.”
Anonymous
If you are ready for change but unsure of how to make this change happen I invite you to attend the Be Passionately Alive With Purpose Retreat for women at the Sherwood Inn on the shores of Beautiful Lake Joseph. October 28 – November 2. This 5 day retreat includes lectures, self-discovery exercises, meditation, self-reflection, and an opportunity to join the dots creating a complete picture of who you are, your why, and how to incorporate this knowledge to create a life of your choosing.
Join me, along with 10 other amazing women who see value in investing in themselves and are ready to own their future. As a self-professed life-long learner I have taken this journey before you. I have read the books, attended the workshops, earned the certifications, and this is your time to benefit from the wisdom I have received. As your guide, I will hold the flashlight as you as you discover, for yourself, the answers you are seeking.
Registration closes August 28th with registration limited to 10 participants. To register or for more information please email Tammy at tdadams@rogers.com
Tammy Adams loves to problem solve, inspire and motivate others who are ready and committed to change. Tammy has spent over 30 years in the field of education and as a certified coach Tammy teaches individuals to challenge and conquer their limiting beliefs and insecurities to create the life of their choosing. As an Advanced Grief Recovery Method® Specialist Tammy understands that unresolved grief can limit an individual’s capacity for happiness and is gifted at supporting individuals through the pain and isolation cause by an emotional loss, of any kind, to a place of happiness they believed no longer existed. “Tammy helped me unpack the baggage and put a smile on my face in the process. It’s a rare quality for someone to fully listen without judgement but yet still steer you in the right direction.” She lives in Paris with her husband where she enjoys hiking, traveling, reading, and creating colourful mandalas. “The purpose of life is to discover your gift. The meaning of life is to give your gift away.”
www.tadams.ca