What Motivates You?

Don’t wear yourself out trying to get rich (Proverbs 23:4). 

So far in your quest to uncover the truth about who you are, you've looked at personality type and passion.

The next key to living authentically is getting in touch with your core values.

Your core values are what you judge to be important in life.

Values are not the same as morals. Values are not chosen. Your values are part of your intrinsic make up.

Your values are what drive you. Your values are what motivate you.

Your core values are who you really are.

When you are involved in activities that are in line with your values you feel most like yourself. You have a deep sense of well-being  You feel connected, excited, glowing – everything is effortless.

On the contrary, when you are engaged in activities and behaviour that are not in line with your values you feel disconnected, frustrated, bored, upset, angry, disturbed, obligated – you find yourself wishing for a better life. You’re just going through the motions, fulfilling your responsibilities, doing what you feel you ought to be doing, but there is no life in it for you.

For example, if you are someone who values harmony and connectedness, you may find it very difficult working in a fast-paced, highly competitive office environment, where everyone’s main focus is simply getting ahead.

If freedom to choose and risk-taking are among your core values, you will probably end up feeling extremely bored, frustrated and trapped in working environment that requires you to follow strict protocols and report to your supervisor before making any significant decision.

Identifying your values can be a difficult process and I’m reluctant to give you a list of options to help you get started. I've found that people tend to look at a list of values and choose the ones that they think are most socially desirable or acceptable, rather than looking into themselves and uncovering the values that are really there. The process of coaching helps draw out what your values actually are.

Use this list simply as a prompt.

Choose the values that are important to you and rank them in their order of importance.

Expand the list by adding other personal values that are important to you.

Contribution	Excellence	Humour	Honesty	Orderliness	Adventure
Integrity	Discipline	Compassion	Spirituality	Creativity	Independence
Perseverance	Authenticity	Elegance	Trust	Accuracy	Growth
Joy	Service	Humility	Recognition	Aesthetics	Collaboration
Self-Expression	Tradition	Community	Freedom	Personal Power	Performance

Learn more about developing empowering belief systems in the next post.

Life in all its Fullness

The thief’s purpose is to steal and kill and destroy. 

My purpose is to give life in all its fullness. 

(John 10:10, New Living Translation)

In my previous post I told you about a woman whose face was world famous yet she didn't know it. Her image appeared on magazine covers all over the world yet she lived in poverty, eking out an existence at the foothills of a desolate mountain. Her image was world famous yet she remained completely unknown.

The fundamental key to living on purpose is to know the truth about who you are.

What you do not know can, and does, harm you.

It harms you in the sense that, like the woman, you may be alive, but you are merely eking out an existence, living far below the fullness of all that is available to you.

And I’m not just talking about having enough money.

Money helps, we all know that. But if life was simply about being financially secure, then we would not witness such a high degree of divorce, depression, suicide, and addiction in the lives of the rich and famous.

You can be a success at work yet be miserable at home because your marriage is falling apart.

You may finally move into the big house in the posh neighbourhood with the fancy car, yet lay awake in bed every night, your mind racing, your heart pounding, longing for a good night's sleep.

Riches lose their lustre when you have a child who has gone astray. And wealth is a vain comfort when your family is plagued by a chronic illness eating away at your health, your finances, your time, your peace.

Maybe for you, life is good – except when it seems like an endless treadmill of waking up, eating, going to work, eating, sitting in front of the TV, going to bed. And then you have to do it all over again the next day... and the next...

Or for you, life is good – so long as you don’t turn off the TV or radio or iPod or cell phone or Internet or whatever background noise keeps you going from the moment you wake up to the moment you drop into bed at night. Anything to keep away the silence. Anything to keep you from thinking. Anything to keep you from feeling that nagging emptiness that tells you there has to be more to life than this?

When you tap into the truth of who you are, you tap into the power of living on purpose.

Learn more about developing empowering belief systems in the next post.

The Afghan Girl

My people are destroyed from lack of knowledge (Hosea 4:6)

Her face became famous as the cover photograph on the June 1985 issue of National Geographic. Her image was named "the most recognized photograph" in the history of the magazine.

Her photograph has been widely used on Amnesty International brochures, posters, and calendars and has inspired artists the world over.

Photographer Stephen McCurry took his most recognized portrait, "Afghan Girl", in a refugee camp near Peshawar, Pakistan. However, the identity of the "Afghan Girl" remained unknown for over 17 years until McCurry and a National Geographic team located the woman in 2002.

Her name is Sharbat Gula, and she had no idea that her face was world famous.

Sharbat had never seen her famous portrait before it was shown to her in January 2002. She had endured all manner of hardship and poverty in the intervening years despite her celebrity. Her village in the mountain foothills has no running water, so she fetches water from a stream. She can write her name but she cannot read and hopes that her 3 daughters will get the education that she never did. Highly unlikely, since she lives in a village that has no school.

“Sharbat has never known a happy day,” her brother says, “except perhaps the day of her marriage.”

One of the essential keys of living on purpose is to know the truth about who you are.

Learn more about developing empowering belief systems in the next post.

National Geographic

The Truth Sets Free

And you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free (John 8:32)

We all have certain assumptions about life.

These assumptions may not necessarily be true, but if we believe them to be true, we live as though they are true.

What you believe affects the way that you live.

As I said in my last post, there was a time when people thought that the earth was flat. When people thought that the earth was flat, there was a limit to what they could achieve. Once it was proved that the earth was actually round, it literally opened up a world of possibilities.

When people had the wrong idea about what causes disease, it led to a lot of needless pain and suffering and loss of life. But once microorganisms were discovered, treatments could be found that dealt with the actual root cause of the disease.

Many times in life, we go around and around in endless cycles of needless pain, suffering and frustration; always struggling with the symptoms and never getting to the root cause of the issues.

We often lead limited lives, unable to reach the fullness of all the possibilities that are open to us, unaware that we are being held back by our own limited thinking.

Are you tired of going nowhere? Have you had enough of trying to overcome the same old issues year after year?

Learn more about developing empowering belief systems in the next post.

The Earth is Flat?

“What is truth?” Pilate asked (John 18:38)

belief: /bɪˈliːf/ noun

an acceptance that something exists or is true; something one accepts as true or real; a firmly held opinion

A belief is anything that you accept as true.

That does not necessarily mean that it is true – it just means that you believe it to be true.

This is significant because what you believe shapes your life – your thoughts, your actions, your entire worldview.

What you believe is either helping or hindering your progress and your success in life.

For instance, for a long time people believed that the earth was flat; that if you went far enough across the sea you would eventually fall off the edge of the world. That was until Ferdinand Magellan settled the matter once and for all by circumnavigating the globe.

Removing blood from patients was thought to be beneficial so bloodletting was the treatment of choice for many diseases for over 2000 years. That was until scientists like Louis Pasteur discovered the microscopic creatures that were actually responsible for spreading disease.

So what about you?

What ‘flat earth theory’ do you hold that is stopping you from going forward in your life?

Learn more about developing empowering belief systems in the next post.

People Do What People Believe

For as he thinks in his heart, so is he (Proverbs 23:7)

Living on purpose means living authentically.

This means that your day to day actions line up with who you really are – your core beliefs and values.

You can tell what you really believe by what you do every day.

Rory Vaden puts it well in his ‘Law of the Pendulum’ – if you really want to know what someone believes in, all you have to do is look at their calendar and their chequebook.

How you spend your time and your money is a good indication of what you really believe in, what your priorities are.

Often people will launch into New Year Resolutions or try to change their actions and behaviour without dealing with the root of their actions – what they believe.

It may work for a while, but sooner or later their subconscious conspires to bring their behaviour back in line with who they really are.

You cannot consistently behave in a manner that is inconsistent with who you really are.

So are you stuck? Do you have some behaviour that you have been trying to change for years?

Take a deeper look at what you really believe.

Get your belief system straightened out first, and then the desired behaviour will follow.

Learn more about developing empowering belief systems in the next post.