It is my passion and life’s’ work to bring the secrets to success and fulfilment to the forefront of entrepreneurs’ minds. It is actually not so much of a secret as most of us are aware of this albeit at a subconscious or intuitive level.
Why are we all not living examples of success, fulfilment and happiness of using this secret to our advantage if it is the ‘most worthwhile secret’ to unlock?
Well mostly because of our own doubts, fears and insecurities as well as leading complex and multi-faceted lives as entrepreneurs, spouses, partners, mothers and fathers. We cannot be expected to reach a level of expertise within all subject matter on the face of this planet, in one life time.
So much is written and said about positive thinking, the ability to attract to you what you want and designing your own life the way you want it as if there is one magic pill, or tool, or philosophy that can give you that.
Well , all poetic and beautiful theories indeed but without proper context, without considering that we are all unique and have different opinions, worldviews , beliefs about ourselves and religious or non-religious beliefs, it becomes very hard to believe that a ‘one size fits all and very generic approach to success and the unlocking of your own potential is the one answer.
Psychotherapy, prayer, Meditation, affirmations, Mantras, hypnosis, NLP, Leadership strategies and any form of therapy or tool that you can use to enhance your sense of fulfilment, purpose and success is only valid and can potentially ‘move mountains’ if you believe in it, diligently apply it without fail, more importantly, can only be truly effective when the aforesaid tool or strategy authentically resonates with who you truly are.
Why do millions upon millions of people bounce from one book, one guru, one course, one tool to the next without ever reaching a sense of sustained fulfilment and success?? Various reasons do exist for this phenomenon and this writing will explore some of, these aforementioned reasons.
Is success and fulfilment only reserved for the select few? Those that are regarded as super successful by society, the Jack Mas’, the Jeff Bezos’, the Tony Robbins’ of this world constitute less than 0.01% of the world population yet a high number of entrepreneurs secretly or not so secretly harbour the desire to emulate them. Is this but a pipe dream? No gambling man would take that odds, for sure!??
As a business writer, an entrepreneur, a Peak performance business, life coach and trainer I am privileged to experience entrepreneurship and the ‘art of fulfilment’ from various experiential angles and here is what I can state emphatically:
Being fulfilled can only be possible when –
- You take extreme responsibility and care for your mental development. This means to engage in daily practise of aligning your thoughts to your inspiring personal vision and purpose. This means to enhance your existing empowering beliefs and to systematically remove your doubts, fears and insecurities.
- You take extreme responsibility for your ‘biochemistry’. As a general example, Inflammation in your body, vitamin deficiencies, food allergies, and the constant release of cortisol (stress hormone) can cause mood swings, even depression. So irrespective of your strong attempts to improve your thinking, doing meditation and various forms of other practises will have no real positive effect if your ‘biochemistry’ is not optimal.
- You take extreme responsibility for the state of your body. Your body is the tool used for the expression of your mental capacity as well as a mirror to your internal ‘biochemistry’. Your body is a tool for taking expressive action and when disrespected will lower your levels of performance dramatically.
There are various alternatives to going to the gym or following generic diets. We are all unique and we must find ways to move and train our bodies that really resonates with what we enjoy and that is in alignment with our unique personalities. Do not simply fall for the latest fitness fad or diet. Do what serves the unique you the best and what you enjoy. Life is too short to follow gym routines and fitness that you do not enjoy purely because they are popular. Do some research and do some free trials to see what resonates with you.
- When you are authentically you. Trying to impress others, attempting to live the life that your parents, teachers and government wants for you is a sure path to leading an unfulfilled and depressed life. Be you. But first find out who you really are. Embark on the journey towards understanding what you truly value in life. Bravery and a willingness to fail combined with a keen focus on learning from each failure is a key requirement to this journey of discovery.
I can clearly tell you who you are not. You are not your job, your likes and dislikes, and you are most certainly not a personality type. The depths of you is on an existential scale. Do not live life on the periphery, meaning just do a job, have a family, pay bills and then die. Be brave enough to take a ‘deep dive’ into your own psychology and discover your awe inspiring potential and discover who you really are.
- When you find your life’s purpose.
‘The two most important events in your life is when you are born and when you find out why’ – Mark Twain
My life took a dramatic turn for the positive when I fully came to terms with the fact that my life’s’ purpose is to serve others in coaching them towards actualising their life’s dreams. If your job is not a passion – ‘Move, you are not a tree’-. What a misery when you spend eight to twelve hours a day within a job that you do not thoroughly enjoy. You perform exponentially better anyway when doing something that you love. As an example I wrote this article on a Saturday and not for a second did it feel like work, nor did I feel I am missing out on other things, it is a joyful sharing and expression of what I love doing.
It is time to take a long, hard and positively introspective look at yourself in the mirror as after all the only place where a personal and positive transformation can take place is within yourself. All the tools required to totally transform is within you it is just not apparent to you as it is hidden underneath your own doubts, fears, and insecurities. An external search for ‘the right guru’, or the right philosophy or tool will never be sufficient onto its own.
External parties such as spiritual gurus, coaches, trainers are simply there as mirrors to your own potential, and it is absolutely good to have a mentor , coach, or guru but ultimately realise that you have to do the work and that the answers must come from within. The problem with ‘external’ and generic answers is that it never came from you. Only when the answers truly come from your authentic purpose driven self, do they form the right path for you.