A Life Chart That Can Shape Your Future

...with making these changes?

What's the worst thing that could happen if I embraced these changes?

Commitment to change may be scary, but any shadowy fear is less terrifying when brought into the light. Life isn't designed to keep kicking you in the teeth, and the new opportunities that will start presenting themselves will turn out to be much more desirable than what you had become rooted into.

Having begun to communicate more effectively with yourself, you develop the ability to communicate more effectively with others, too.

Find Core Values
What underpins your ability to do things differently are your core values. Until you know what these motivations are, and you will continue to make decisions or take actions that cause you inner conflict.

Sometimes it is difficult to know exactly what your core values are, which is why the following exercise is so useful.

Choose one positive aspect of your life from your chart and turn it into an affirmation - a powerful short sentence. When you have written this on a blank piece of paper, start to ask yourself 'why' and go on until you get to the core of who you are.

One woman who I was helping with self-development wrote down: "I am passionate about my work."

This is what happened when she asked herself why.

'I am passionate about my work.' Why? Because I am good at it and successful and make a lot of money.

Why? Because my work reflects who I am as a person.

Why? My work uses all my skills. It just feels natural and 'right'.

Why? Because I feel I have a talent that can help others, not just myself.

Why? I feel this is about more than work - it's my life's mission.

On a conscious level, this woman has explained her love of her work materialistically; it brought her tangible rewards. But on a much deeper level, making money was not a core value at all in her life - having a sense of 'destiny' was.

When she applied this knowledge to other areas of her life, she began listening more to her intuition.

Try the exercise and see what core values are highlighted for you.

Just Do It
One of the key pieces of advise I give my life coaching clients is to stop thinking so much about what they are going to do and just do it.

This has been called 'acting one's way into a new thinking'. So, decide on one thing you will commit to doing differently that will begin to make your desired future a reality. If you still can't move forward after highlighting, it may be that you have a fear connected with it.

List ten things you habitually put off doing, and look for a pattern. It could be that they are connected to one area of your life, such as finance. When you are gripped by a fear that stops you taking action, you absorb a false belief about yourself, such as 'I'm hopeless with money'

Try the five 'why's' exercise to help you identify the nature of this mental blockage. This false belief is often simply based on a lack of skill, and you may just need the right advice or practise to move forward.

Trust Intuition
Intuition is commonly associated with people who have enhanced creativity, even genius. Why? Such people have not only trained themselves to recognise the intuitive response, but take action to reap the benefits.

Some of the most successful business people are comfortable using their intuition to make decisions about a person or situation. Studies at Harvard Business School found that senior executives of some of the world's biggest organisations attribute 80% of their success to having acted on their intuition.

What we call a 'gut feeling' may simply be a biological reaction based on the vast database of information which has been processed by the brain since the moment we were born, and of which we are not consciously aware.

Our minds analyse the trillions of items of data made available to us over a lifetime, not just on the basis of 'facts' but also from the responses to our external environment. Through intuition you find out you know something you didn't know you knew. All that remains to be done then is act upon that information.

Find A Mentor
It can be a great help in motivating you to achieve your full potential when you have a imaginary mentor. Whether someone you know or admire from afar, living or dead. It just needs to be someone whose attitude, behaviour or gifts are a source of inspiration to you.

When you feel you have got underneath this persons skin, use that knowledge whenever you are presented with a challenge. Think about what they would have done in your situation - mentally ask them.

This technique is a way of asking questions in order to expand you choices - and these questions hold the key to your future fulfilment. When you come across a characteristic or behaviour you admire in someone, ask them how they manage to do it - for example: "How do you stay so cheerful when customers are rude to you?" or even "How do you find the courage to chat up someone you've never met?"

Think of life as a classroom where each person has something to teach you as well as something to learn from you.

Enjoy Today
We need to be able to plan our lives to a certain extent, but we should never forget that trying to control the unpredictability of life is an unnecessary waste of energy.

Too much attachment to a specific outcome is like shackling yourself to a partner you know isn't quite right, just because you can't trust that the ultimate relationship can be yours.

We cannot know what lies ahead, only trust that we have the inner resources to make the most of whatever happens.

For many of us, either our minds are embroiled in the past, reviewing things we wish we had done differently, or we are living in the future, planning all the things we intend to do for a set of circumstances that may never happen.

Yet the present is the only reality we have. This is why the focus of spiritual leaders has always been on living for today.

To help you live in the present, imagine that for one day you have agreed to let an alien take over your body, so it can report back to it's own kind on what it's like to be human.

As this objective alien observer, you will be more aware of everything that happens to you during the day. When you fell an emotion, label it as 'confusion', 'sadness', 'joy' or whatever.

In this attentive state, you may notice subtle nuances of behaviour in yourself and others that you may have missed before.

Open Your Mind
Close your eyes and visualise a special place, in the centre of which is a deep pool. In this pool are kept many different objects which help seekers find the answers to whatever they are looking for.

Imagine plunging your arm into the deep pool and bring out an object. Let your mind relax and allow an image of what the object is to float into your mind.

To help, here is an example. A middle aged man pulled out of the pool a Tibetan singing bowl. He had been a gifted musician as a youngster, but over the years his city job had swallowed up the time.

He realised that this symbol meant that he had neglected a vital part of himself. He began to set aside a few hours a week to indulge his passion. He began to feel and even look different, and rediscovered his zest for life.

Conclusion
The insights you have gained from the previous steps will stay with you even if you reinforce them regularly.

If you continually question why you are behaving in a certain way, you can recognise when you are succumbing to old habits that have anchored you to port, rather than allowing you to sail to new shores and reach your ultimate potential.

Extracted By Cherry Maslen From Finding Fulfilment By Liz Simpson

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