Archive for Choice
Anchor Your Why
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How to anchor your WHY’s into the bedrock of your heart to ensure a life of total fulfillment!
If you’re like me, you’ve set intentions and goals and have pursued missions in your life with passion. Most of you have more than likely reached many of your dreams and goals and then set out to achieve more. Perhaps you have had goals in the past and when you’ve reached them you said to yourself…”WOW is this all there is?” Or, “this doesn’t feel like I thought it would” etc… Most likely the meaning behind your feelings is that your initial list of WHYS for setting the goals were not anchored deep within your heart. Therefore, when you reached the goal and set out for the next goal or milestone in your business or life, you felt a sense that something was missing. Let’s take a closer look at the different levels of WHYS in order for you to grasp just how profound each level can be to your overall fulfillment!
There is personal gratification – this is simply our desire to fulfill our feelings. It can be romantic all the way to how we feel when we’re engaged in a favorite hobby. This will be the most common WHY in your personal and work life, yet it is the least stable. There is very little staying power in this space…even the slightest bit of adversity can zap this WHY.
The next level up would be money and material possessions. It does produce more of a drive and can turn the heat up quite a bit over just personal gratification alone. Therefore, you will see this is another very common WHY for many. It drives us in our careers and can influence our decisions and priorities in our personal world as well. However, there is still little staying power here when adversity calls.
Moving into the next level – this is where the craving of the approval of others sneaks on in. Looking for that “pat on the back” or recognition can be very motivational. Most children have this as their biggest WHY, and adults can have it sometimes for life. Therefore, many very successful people in life are hungry for this approval – so hungry it leaves them feeling insecure about themselves. Go ahead and think of just one great athlete or movie star/entertainer of your time where this addiction wiped them out vs. took them to higher levels of fulfillment. Who was it?
The fear factor is up next…the fear of failure, criticism, loss, and consequences are all BIG if you let them in. Fear can be one of the largest motivators of men and women – it is by far the most powerful on this list thus far. Even though fear has the power to create tremendous short term change and results, it can create some nasty long-term consequences. The stress created by fear undermines all that is positive and will eat away at your long term effectiveness.
Next stop is our survival instinct. When you’re driven by a “What Ever it Takes” attitude, you will succeed, however, the results will not be exceptional. Attempting to create patterns you can use long-term for excellence in life will not be possible with the survival mode pattern. It will take a higher level, so let’s look to the next level.
Moving into our personal achievement – this is one of the first levels of tapping into our true inner being. This WHY is so much different than that of our self-gratification WHY. Simply put, when the desire to do well in life or in your career is built into your inner core of who you are, it can drive a lifetime of incredible achievements.
Here is a huge WHY for me – my Family! There are many types of family relationships out in the world today from the loving and devoted to the dysfunctional and destructive. When you truly commit to loving your family, it can become one of the most powerful driving WHYS for long lasting achievements in the best way.
Now whether you believe in God or not is not really the issue on the next one – you can believe in any way you wish. It is proven however, that those who are truly connected to their sources, be it God or other beliefs, have the most loving and devoted hearts of all. This way of being leads to the strongest anchored WHYS that I’m aware of. There are many religious people in the world, but those who can act on their faith and a sense of purpose are rare indeed. This is a space that is not a feeling, but rather a choice to commit and live each and every day with your faith.
Now that you have a list of the most common WHYS…I challenge you to do some self discovery and ask yourself “What are the WHYS that are driving my career and my personal life? How do they tie to my job, marriage, family, children, and overall relationships in the world?” Are you getting closer to where you want to be by being the way you are now, or are there areas you can begin to transform and take action in to have a deeper level of commitment and achievement?
Cheers to your personal growth and discovering your biggest WHYS and how to anchor them into the bedrock of your heart to live a life of total fulfillment!
Sharon Ann Irwin
(916) 223-4244 cell
