Big Idea #1: Building Awareness for an Awesome Life

Ever find yourself hanging around people who have different ideas or values than you do, and feel yourself judging them a little? The truth is, we’ll never judge anyone worse than we judge ourselves. If we’re judging someone else, it’s an indicator that we’re actually judging something about ourselves.

We project our insecurities out onto other people, and judge others for our shadow side. So when you find yourself judging, check in and ask yourself where this is coming from! It’s not a good or bad thing, it’s just about having an awareness, and then a compassion for yourself and for what’s happening.

Awareness isn’t something you can just pick up at the store… obviously! Awareness is a muscle. One tool you can use to build your awareness muscle is meditation. Practicing everyday can help to build awareness in your life. Just because you complete your practice doesn’t mean you’re done being aware for the day! It’s important to practice awareness in every moment, notice where our energy is, if we’re placing judgment, etc. Checking in and bringing awareness to your life can help you life a life that’s in integrity to yourself. It’s a constant process.

We all hear that communication is key – but this can be really misleading! If we’re in a bad mood, and trying to communicate from this space, it’s probably not going to be very helpful. Everything is subjective based on your mood! So don’t communicate when you’re in a shitty place, or make decisions about your life, or try to work on important projects in this place…

When you’re in a shitty place your #1 job is to feel better. So whatever it takes to feel better, do that thing. It’s all about awareness! Recognize where you’re at, become aware of your thoughts and notice how you are feeling.

Big Idea #2: Self-Esteem Comes from Integrity

Self esteem comes from a place of living in integrity. When we’re living in alignment with our core values and our inner truth, telling the truth and living with a sense of purpose, we show up in life with greater confidence and self-esteem. We don’t need to be 100% in alignment with these things, but working towards this helps us to be in integrity as much as possible.

And getting into integrity means figuring out who we are and what’s important to us.

And it’s so important to realize the difference between making decisions from a low place or a high place. Resist making important decisions from a place of fear, anger and worry, and instead wait until you’re closer to a place of spirit, creativity and contribution. Oftentimes you’ll hear that inner voice saying, “Well sure that makes sense, but pushing myself and beating myself up is what’s really going to get results!”

The type of action that’s going to come from this though, is low-performing action. While pushing ourselves might get us results in the short-run, it’s like burning through our fuel- we’re going to burn out soon. But when we come from a higher place of purpose and inspiration and well-being, we are energized by taking action – not depleted. This is a huge difference!

Ask yourself:

Am I depleted after this action? Or am I energized after this action?

This is one way to know if you’re acting out of purpose. If you’re feeling depleted after acting, you might be pushing yourself from a place of fear or worry. But if your action energizes you, this is how it feels to live from purpose.

Big Idea #3: Old vs. New Job Models

Searching for a job can be super frustrating, especially when following the old model of jobs.

Old job model: What can I get?

New job model: What can I give? What are my strengths and passions? Where can I add value? Where is there pain or problem I can help solve? Where is there a cause I find meaningful?

See the difference? The old job model is all about scraping by to just get, get, get. It’s all about living from desperation and not about giving your gifts to the world. The new job model is all about serving others and making a difference by living through purpose.

When we try to fit into a broken system, we’re going to get a pretty shitty emotional response from it. But when we come from a place of creativity and contribution, then we inspire ourselves, inspire other people, and start to find opportunities where previously there were none.

Be careful not to fall into old patterns of how jobs and resumes have “always” worked.

And what do you really want? What are you really inspired to do? Don’t be limited by just the options you see out there. If you could have, do or create anything, what would it be?

HW + Action Steps!

As always, we’d love for you to share your personal favorite takeaways in the private Facebook group.