Are there two of me? Some people differentiate professional development from personal development. I once believed that honing my professional skills was all that was needed for my career success. I had a wake up call when I realized my trust was dependent on other people to give me the tools I wanted to make me successful. Having skills and choosing where I wanted to use those competencies changed. Something was missing. Who the heck am I, what am I doing in the boardroom, where would I rather be? Only everything changed when I began to enter the portal of self development. I became aware that I had just been going along for the ride without a roadmap. The fact that I was clueless about my identity as a human with a desire to contribute to the world of work, set me on a new pathway. I discovered there are many dimensions of who I am. My destiny was careening out of control because I was not in the driver’s seat. OOPS!Discovering my inner truths allowed me to become a fuller expression of me. That’s when I claimed my ShaMama Avatar who is wise, inner-directed, and tuned in to writing and enacting my life script in work and life. I found out I can erase, rewrite and imagine a more expansive script as I go day by day. I go where the energies are strong and vibrant; where I can laugh and be playful and where I feel no pressure or stress.
In evolution, the saying that nothing fails like success is probably always right. A creature which has become perfectly adapted to the environment, an animal whose whole capacity and vital force is concentrated and expanded in succeeding here and now, has nothing left over with which to respond to any radical change. Age by age, it becomes more perfectly economical in the way its entire resources meet exactly its current and customary opportunities. In the end it can do all that is necessary to survive without any conscious striving or movement. "It can, therefore, beat all competitors in the special field; but equally, should the field change, it must become extinct." –Arnold Toynbee
We are all in a new field, it seems. We need inner resources to assist us to flex our thinking and abilities to respond to the changes that are constantly shifting our lives. It is not the end, but we are facing a new threshold.
What is the threshold? For some of us it’s about a new life stage. Maybe from young adult to a maturing adult. For some generations, it’s about facing the threshold of aging. But for all of us, something is up for change!
For me, I consider adding to who I think I am. Maybe I look for an archetype or avatar who is representative of a characteristic that could add to my inner resources. I have added many inner resources by contemplating the truthteller avatar, represented in the movie, The Last Avatar.
Truth-busting my outdated or narrowing beliefs about who I am, requires persistent inquiry! I often track a misguided belief when I see myself clinging to perceived control of a situation or event. What are the tracks you follow to discover more about yourself?
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