After last weeks blog went live I had a lot of questions from people about what needs to happen in order to re-connect with our hearts. As we grow and develop we find ourselves leading - ourselves and others - on a form of autopilot. Basing our motivations and resulting actions on the 'norm', 'best practice', 'leadership style' and any number of other current buzzwords that mandate how we should best go about the act of leading ourselves and others. Over the course of our careers we can literally spend decades being someone else, conforming to expectations and social guidelines and failing to experience the absolute happiness that comes from the freedom of taking heart led action that is at one with our inner self. As a result, so many of us find ourselves burning out, questioning our value and contribution to goals we cannot even remember setting, and ultimately losing control over who we are, and where we want to be. Instead of shaping the life we want to lead we find life happening all around us and to us, in a chaotic, exhausting, and seemingly meaningless way. To me, the essence of leading from the heart is about operating from a place devoid of ego, and taking back the control over every aspect of our lives and experiencing the resulting sense of liberation.
So how do you take back the control? The best way to answer this question is to imagine that you are meeting yourself - your true self - what would you see? what would you hear yourself say? what would you look like? and most importantly what would you learn from yourself? Life happens to all of us, the good, the bad, the indifferent and everything in between - it's how we absorb and react to those life events that define the person we are at heart. Reclaiming our sense of self and leading from that place means we need to redirect our self view, and reframe it in a way that allows us to hold the love in our heart out there for ourselves and the whole world to see. Taking control back over our life purpose is an act of extreme bravery because it requires us to stand emotionally naked before ourselves, to find our self worth and to project it out for others to see and value. The comfort of 'blame' is no longer there to provide a buffer between our actions and their outcomes because the power rests with us. Removing blame from our lives is hugely freeing - responsibility rests with us, and us alone, allowing us to embrace the outcomes as part of a life long cycle of learning, and evolution rather than the end point of a particular experience. The ability to see life as a continuum rather than discrete sets of actions, and outcomes is in itself liberating because in that perspective there is no judgment, no winner or loser. There is only the learning. Embracing the universal laws of gratitude, love, self-respect and humility allows us to tune into our souls and allows the voice within to guide us into the future that holds a deep sense of meaning and fulfilment for us. Be brave. Feel the truth in your heart and follow its path.
To your success. Deidre