Living Holistically

May the God who gives us peace make you holy in every way and keep your whole being – spirit, soul and body – free from every fault at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ (I Thessalonians 5:23)

He had it all. He was a world champion, unbeatable, at the top of his game. Then allegations of unfaithfulness and adultery emerged. Chaos rocked his home, a scandal reverberating in headlines at every street corner. He dropped from his exalted position into obscurity, never quite regaining his former glory.

She was a child star, rising to fame even before she was old enough to spell her own name. Her adult life disintegrated into drunken binges and drugs, depression, divorce and damaging relationships.

He was a super star, revered by fans all over the world. One night he jumped out of a window, falling to his death several stories below. There was no note left behind to pacify the question burning in everyone’s heart – Why?

This is the next vital key to understanding the truth about who you are.

You need to know the truth that you are a multi-faceted being.

You comprise a body, soul and spirit.

Your life consists of several life areas.

If you focus on any life area to the exclusion or detriment of the others, you will never truly be a success.

Every life area impinges on the others, and failure or deficiency in one area inevitably affects the others.

It is a tragedy when executives rise to the pinnacle of the corporate ladder only to discover that the victory is hollow. Every close relationship was sacrificed on the journey to the top and there is no one left to enjoy it with them.

It becomes meaningless to finally achieve financial security only to be unable to live the life of your dreams because you neglected your health and are now hindered by a debilitating disease.

Living on purpose means living holistically.

Living on purpose means living with balance.

Learn more about developing an empowering belief system in the next post.

A 7 Year Old Surgeon?

He cared for them with a true heart and led them with skillful hands (Psalm 78:72).

In 2000, video footage emerged from a remote village in India, making headlines around the world. A young girl was receiving surgery to separate her fingers, which had been badly burned and fused together in a tight fist. The surgeon was a 7 year old boy named Akrit Jaswal.

Akrit developed a passion for science and anatomy at an early age. At an age when most children are learning their ABCs, Akrit was reading Shakespeare and assembling a library of medical textbooks.

When the girl’s impoverished family, who could not afford a doctor, heard about his amazing abilities, they asked if he would operate on their daughter for free.

Akrit had no formal medical training and no experience of surgery, yet he managed to free the girl’s fingers and she was able to use her hand again. The surgery was a success.

Akrit went on to become the youngest student ever to attend an Indian university and is currently working toward bachelor's degrees in zoology, botany and chemistry.

Nancy Yi Fan moved to the United States from Beijing when she was 7 years old. She couldn’t speak a word of English. Determined, Nancy taught herself the language by reading lots of books.

When she was 11 years old, Nancy began writing her first fantasy novel, Swordbird. A year later, she emailed her manuscript to the CEO of Harper Collins. Her book was accepted for publication and flew to the top of the New York Times best-seller list. At age 13, Nancy became the youngest best-selling author in Harper Collins history. Her book is sold all over the world.

Nancy has subsequently released two follow up novels and is a freshman at Harvard University.

Akrit and Nancy tapped into the next key to knowing the truth about who you are: knowing your talents.

Your talents are your natural abilities – the things that come easily to you without being taught.

You have the greatest potential for growth in the area of your natural gifting.

Teaching and training in your area of talent simply hones your natural ability, taking it to higher levels. The 2 young people above didn't go to University to gain totally new skills – they went to University to develop their already identified abilities.

To tap into the power of living on purpose, you need to identify your God-given strengths. Then work on increasing your capacity.

A good way of identifying your talents is to pay attention to what other people say about you. Our friends and family can often see in us what we can’t see in ourselves. Think about the things you do naturally that others say "I wish I could do that _____ (fill in the blank), as well as you do" and you say "it’s no big deal, it was nothing, etc..."

In what areas are people always coming to ask you for help?

Read StrengthsFinder2.0 or Now, Discover Your Strengths. Each copy of the books contains a unique access code to allow you to take the Gallup online assessment.  Alternatively, you can buy an access code at www.strengthstest.com. 

There are also many free resources available on Web to help you discover your talent.

Learn more about developing an empowering belief system in the next post.

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.

Passion

Delight yourself in the LORD and He will give you the desires of your heart (Psalm 37:4)

In my previous post I talked about understanding your unique personality type as one of the keys to knowing the truth about who you are.

If you haven’t done so already, please take the free online personality test. It will give you valuable insight into what makes you tick.

The next key to unlocking the truth about who you are is passion.

What are you passionate about?

God has wired you in such a way that there are certain things you really care about.

What gets you emotionally involved?

Is there a topic that inevitably comes up in your conversations and has your friends saying, “There she goes again!” or “Don’t get him started on that!”

Passion is what births causes all over the world.

Passion is the difference maker between leading an ordinary life and a life that makes a significant impact in your community and beyond.

We've all heard about Mahatma Gandhi, Nelson Mandela, Mother Theresa, and Martin Luther King, and we all know the difference that their passion made on the world.

But what about ordinary people like you and me?

What about Martha Payne, the 9 year old Scottish girl whose Neverseconds blog has raised over £115,000 and is helping feed almost 2,000 children every day for a year in Malawi.

Or William Kamkwamba the young man who didn’t let being forced to drop out of school keep him from teaching himself how to build a windmill out of scraps of rubbish that powered his family’s house and is now providing power and running water to his entire village.

Your passion is simply what you love to do most.

The questions below will help point you in the right direction.

1. What activities do you get lost in; you lose track of time while you’re doing them?
2. What do you find yourself constantly being drawn to?
3. What would you do even if you didn’t get paid for it?
4. What makes you feel most alive?
5. What absolutely has to be in your life for you to be fulfilled?
6. What can you not, not do?

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

Your Personality Type

Thank You for making me so wonderfully complex! 

Your workmanship is marvellous - and how well I know it 

(Psalm 139:14, New Living Translation)

The first step to developing an empowering belief system is to know the truth about who you are.

You need to develop self awareness.

You are a complex, unique being. There is no one else on the face of the earth like you. Even identical twins that appear to be completely alike on the face of it have differences when you look more closely.

You are the way you are for a reason.

One way of developing self awareness is to understand the unique combination of qualities that come together to make you, you.

Think about your family, friends or colleagues at work.

Maybe you know someone who is full of good jokes and funny stories and is a pleasure to be around.

Or you have a friend you can always count on to help when you need to get something done.

Then there’s the person who is always wheeling and dealing, trying to make a business transaction out of everything and nothing.

There’s the networking king who always knows someone, who knows someone, who knows someone else, and the drama queen who stumbles from one personal crisis to another, spending hours on the phone telling her friends all about it in between.

Understanding your unique personality type is one of the keys to understanding yourself.

For a long time I was not comfortable with whom I am.

Growing up, my teachers regularly used to tell me to “contribute more to class discussions”. But I learned better by quietly taking in the information and thinking it over on my own.

Among friends, I found it more interesting to observe and listen. But people constantly asked me why I was so quiet.

I was content with solitude and my favourite pastime was to spend the day immersed in a good book, but friends continually wondered why I was always reading.

Then I began to notice that I’m the one that people come to when they have pain in their life and they need advice, comfort and a listening ear.

I’m the one that people call when they have difficult choices to make and they need help making sense of all the possibilities.

I’m the one that my talkative friends enjoy spending time with because they need someone to patiently hear all the ideas bubbling up inside of them.

So what about you?

Take this free online personality test and start developing awareness of your own unique personality.

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