Back in my past life (as the owner of a financial planning company, not an actual past life – that’s another many stories!), just about every job applicant would have on their resume the phrase “A highly motivated individual.”
Motivated for WHAT?
We are all motivated for some things. The question is, are they the things that will support us to live thriving, healthy and happy lives? Or are they something else?
Motivation is simply the sum total of the reasons that we have for doing something. Some of these reasons, we are aware of. Many more are unconscious, a result of the beliefs and conditioning that we have picked up throughout our lives.
As this is so specific to each of us, over the next three days, I’m going to help you to:
Find out what drives you
Get clear on what you REALLY desire in life
Discover new tools to manifest your dreams!
At a fundamental level, every motivation that we have is to do with our feelings. Every action that someone takes is ultimately so that they either feel more of something (eg joy) or less of something (eg pain).
All of these feeling states are jostling for our attention. We will naturally gravitate towards creating the feelings and states of being that we value the most in our lives.
These are our values. Each of us has a unique map of the values that we hold dear.
The trouble is, that many people set goals in their life, which are based on what they feel (or have been told) they “should” have, do or be in life. This is without taking the time to understand their true motivations – which are the fulfilment of their values in life.
Therefore, they end up with a picture of success that just doesn’t resonate with them at a deep level. Working towards it is like walking through treacle, as they just don’t have a deep emotional reason to make the things happen.
Or worse, they spend many years climbing up the ladder of success and then realise that it was up against the wrong wall all along!
If you are sacrificing your highest values in order to achieve fulfilment of lower values, it is very hard to create what you want in life. While you might seem to be moving forwards, eventually your internal resistance will kick in. You’ll find it hard to avoid self-sabotage and procrastination.
So, if you want to create the life that you want, it pays to have a good understanding of your own values.
One way to do this is to give yourself some time (say 10 minutes) to write down as many feeling states and concepts that you appreciate as you can. Some examples are peace, love, freedom, security and abundance.
Once you have your list, be tough with yourself and chop them down to the 10 that resonate with you the most.
If you are having trouble doing this, you can bring the feelings into your body, by closing your eyes and remembering a time you felt that way. I also suggest carrying out some tapping (EFT) while doing this, which can really get you in tune with your feelings – find out about EFT here.
Once you have your top ten, it’s time to challenge yourself even more. Carry out a forced choice on each pair of values. Thinking along these lines for each pair:
“If I could only have [freedom] or [comfort] in my life, which one would I keep?
Of course, in real life, you can have all of your top 10, and many more. However, this exercise is to give you your top ten in order. Then, when you create objectives and intentions for your life, you can ask yourself whether they support you in fulfilling your highest values. If they do, you are far more likely to make it happen.
Now, your values might change throughout the twists and turns of your life. It’s important to check in with this now and then and make sure that you aren’t trying to create a life that no longer fulfils who you have become.
In case you are wondering, my highest values are freedom, love, fun, adventure and making a difference. If I’m not living in line with those states of being, I find it much harder to make things happen.
Once I understood this, I was able to change my life really quickly. I was no longer just moving away from pain (which did get me quite far and can be a strong motivator in its own right!). Now I was able to actively seek out the states that I really appreciated.
Now, we live in a beautiful part of Spain, surrounded by mountains and close to both the beach and skiing. My son is able to go to a beautiful alternative school and has lots of friends. His Spanish is already better than mine. We have loads of time together as a family exploring, adventuring and having fun in the beautiful place we live. I’m able to reach many more people worldwide and support them in creating a life that they love, as part of moving here meant I’d have to transform my work and become international. Best of all, we’ve just had a beautiful baby girl – which was something we dearly desired.
So, in terms of freedom, love, fun, adventure and making a difference, it feels like things are going well. It also feels like a lot of it has fallen into place.
This is the power of creating your life from your highest values!
Join me tomorrow where I’ll show you how to use this information to create meaningful and inspiring goals and intentions for your life!
This blog is adapted from my article that was published in the incredible online health magazine, Healthy Perspectives, where I am a regular writer. If you’d like to find many health articles from many different perspectives, check it out here – https://drdrewbrazier.com/healthy-perspectives/
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