The Path To Unlocking Your Potential
Would you like to:
Learn how to lose weight and keep it off?
Master your finances and build wealth?
Inject love back into your relationships?
Land a job in a career you love?
Launch and grow your dream business?
Sustain work/life balance?
Decrease symptoms of depression and anxiety?
Become a better parent?
Figure out who you are, and what you want?
Perfect! 'Where do I start?', I hear you say.
Well sorry to be a #downer, but after years and years of working with countless clients all over the world, I've discovered that the biggest mistake people make on their health and wellness journey is starting at the wrong place.
The problem with the self-help section of any bookstore is that the majority of authors are taking some big things for granted about their readers. They assume, often falsely, that the reader has laid the foundation for self-development, but often that is not the case. And here's why...
Because no one has ever laid out, in an easily digestible crash course, exactly what that foundation is!
Until now... [insert trumpets, and maniacal laugh]
In my practice, long before we get to Brene Brown, and Eckhart Toole, I ask my clients to rate themselves on nine things:
1) Homeostasis - sleep, gut health, organ health, home & place
2) Job/Purpose
3) Finances
4) Health & Nutrition
5) Community
6) Career
7) Relationships
8) Service
9) Self-Actualization/Transformation
For those psychology buffs present you will notice the parallels with Abraham Maslow's research on the hierarchy of needs. Maslow proposed, in a 1943 paper, a theory of human motivation. He did not go so far as to emphasize the order in which they should be met, but did allude to the dominance of the base needs above those of the higher needs.
For example, imagine the client who comes in wanting to lose 45lbs. Well imagine their surprise when I tell them that their first homework assignment is to get 8-hours of uninterrupted sleep per night, and consult their healthcare provider about their chronic IBS issues.
Or imagine the recent graduate who comes in wanting help with their career search. How shocked are they when I give them an eviction notice from Mom & Dad's couch, and send them to the local job fair for "whatever job will cover your new rent!"
Imagine the CEO who wants help managing his team. How shocked is he when I send him to couple's counseling with his partner.
I want you to smash all those goals we mentioned above, but first, you need to address some important foundation steps on your journey forward.
Here's a couple of things you should know before embarking on this journey:
1) To unlock your greatest potential, while living in the world (not on some mountain top, isolated from other humans, bills, work, relationships, etcetera), you must lay the foundation for growth and healing. I call this 'breaking up with the ego', and learning to be #enlightenedAF.
#enlightenedAF is my word for living a life of love and purpose, while living at the bottom of the mountaintop. It is the state of feeling free and able to pursue your greatest hopes and dreams, as you free and enable others to do so. And it is in this state that you not only unlock your greatest potential, but you also become a catalyst to unlock the greatest potential for your family, your workplace, and your community.
2) Growth and healing is not linear. It is circular. But if you return to the practice each day, with a willingness to forgive yourself and to continue to heal and grow, you will manifest miracles all around you.
3) Do NOT, I repeat DO NOT, try do this alone. Everybody needs a growth and healing cheerleader.
Note: How to find your growth and healing cheerleader - these are people who will teach you about the very nature of unselfish care, nurture and love. You will recognize these people by how they attend to their own non-judgmental healing practice and how they free you and enable you to attend to yours.
Take some time today to reflect upon which areas on the Path to Unlocking Your Potential need some attention. Join my community here to get weekly tips and support.
Transform,
Lindsey T. H. Jackson
