We all have dreams, the selves we strive towards becoming and the things we want to create most in our lives. In fact there’s a strong chance you spend a great deal of your time thinking about your what you dream your life to be. It’s motivating. It’s something to reach for. Mysteriously enough, despite all of this desire, so many of us still struggle with beliefs that block us from realizing our what we desire most. And while it’s not easy to simply throw aside your hang ups, there are some keys to unlocking your potential and transforming your dreams into the reality called your awesome life. Here are 5 top tips for leading yourself there:
1. Mind your own business and figure out your dream. I love Katie Byron’s Kaftaesque wake up call and her journey from shelter floor to center stage. Her soft-spoken, straightforward no bullshit smile rips back the curtains of awareness and calls forth our responsibility to clearing the obstacles to our dreams. You are only in charge of your business, not your daughter’s, your co-founder’s, you spouse or the driver who just cut you off. How do you keep from wandering out of your own business and trespassing into others? Focus on you. Create a shock collar for yourself mentally and every time you start judging or advising or doing anything else than considering each one of us as naturally creative and resourceful you are out of your creativity. Being in that place will only create pain and suffering until you step back inside yourself.
2. Use it or lose it. It is not uncommon that people ask me where I find the energy/stamina/time to accomplish what I do in my career, personal and family life. I exercise and live by my values EVERY DAY. Clients who work with me for even a few weeks will tell you, I have no prescription to the *secret* that leads to living your dream. But they will tell you that the first step to creative leadership is caring enough to know what matters to you followed by the commitment to act on that intention. When you know and can identify your top 5 values you make decisions about your life and work balance with ease, confidence and joy. This practice leads to a natural sense of balance and guides you day to day.
3. Exercise your Mind/Body/Spirit every day: Although this one might sound complicated it’s actually the easiest. Doing the Sunday crossword puzzle with little to no assistance, eating right, getting in your daily cardio and being kind to all may sound routine to you, but bringing your creative spirit to each act makes all the difference. Why? Like a runner after they have enjoyed being comfortable at the 5k point begins to train themselves for the 10k that love for the creative self is what propels a life time of results. Curiosity when aligned with values and combined with commitment just keeps leading to resonance, results and fulfillment. That spirit is so influential and motivating it has a natural trajectory. This is the stage when my clients start saying, “can it really be this easy?” Nature usually is.
4. Shrug off the distractions: Whatever form the popularity contest of the current technology has bitten you, bite it right back and create a safe and courageous space for yourself to connect and create with what matters most in your life now. Unplug all distractions on a regular basis and make the tradition of your creativity something that you connect with for at least 90 minutes a week. Shape your intentions about when you are working, available or not, and then honor them. Fall short? That is all right, just be sure to get realign yourself with your intention. Put down the remote unless that is what you want your goals to be.
5. Highhorses are highlights for your development. Hear yourself on the soap box again?Get off it as fast as you can and start getting curious about how this perspective and/or situation is serving and/or costing you. Take a good hard look: growth is here for you but you got to want it. Pointing the finger and/or playing the victim are two of the most passive and pervasive forms of the highhorse losing game. Creating a bunch of nay-sayers right in your moment of need, or springing a flat tire on the way to THE job interview or holding onto that hernia for the last month — whatever your story is, look at what you are contributing to create the situation. Trade drama for karma every opportunity you get: and remember creating opportunities is all up to you.
The challenges come quick nowadays and they can distract and distress us if we do not exercise our creative leadership. Sure, many of the conveniences of today make our life easier but they also ask more of each of us in terms of focus and commitment if we want to realize our dreams and the potential of who we want most to be. Use the 5 steps above in combination, or focus on one per week for the next 5 weeks and you will start to feel your creative strength and endurance build. And step forward: share your dreams with the world of CLC.