Is your authentic potential somewhere in the past, future, or is it a choice we make in every moment? Achieving your authentic potential is a present moment experience. Authenticity is who you are as a person at your core. The choices you make in every moment is an opportunity to connect with and create your authentic potential.
Do you ever feel you are pulled to respond to a challenge or situation one way, and the feeling in your heart, intuition and body tells you something is not right? Your mind can override your intuitive feeling and lead you to respond habitually and unconsciously. After the moment, you recognise that you could have responded in a better way, a way that is more aligned with your authentic self and whom you choose to be. As a human race, we are a cognitive society and allow our mind and ego to lead us as a default system. Through life experiences, we have created unconscious patterns, automatic thoughts, beliefs, fears, and habits that, in every moment, can lead us away from being our authentic self and potential.
If you are not present in the moment, your mind and ego can override your intuitive feeling, and you can become disconnected from your heart and what is most important to you.
It is at this moment you have a choice.
So how can you connect to your authentic potential right now?
Reflect and reconnect with what is most important to you, your values, strengths and whom you want to be. It is also essential to recognise and minimise your automatic responses fuelled by ego - fear, control, resentment, denial, obligation, expectation.
You can categorise human behaviour into two groups: ‘toward behaviour’ and ‘away behaviour’. When you are showing toward behaviour, you are taking action that will move you closer to your values. You act in alignment with your values, behaving and responding like the person your choosing to be.
Away behaviour involves actions and responses that move you away from your values. When you engage in this behaviour, you act in an incongruent way with your values, behaving unlike the person you ideally would like to be and doing things that make your life more challenging.
There is a choice point, which is a moment in time when it is possible to choose between values that are consistent and values that are inconsistent with your behaviour.
In every moment, we have a choice to connect with our authentic self and potential. The following questions will lead you to your ‘choice point’. It is at this point that you create space for your choice to be made. You can check in with your mind, heart, intuition, and body and consciously choose your response and next steps.
When you approach a situation, choice in life or challenge, reflect on the following questions:
1. What situation or challenge are you facing?
2. What thoughts, feelings, instincts, and bodily sensations show up?
3. What skills and strengths can you use to help you live your values?
4. What choice, actions or response would move you away from the person you choose to be or the life you choose to have?
5. What choice, actions or response would move you toward the person you choose to be or the life you choose to have?
6. Check-in with your heart, intuition and body and make a choice – this is your choice point.
At every moment, we will face a choice point. It is the choice you make in a moment that will reflect and determine your ability to connect to and live your authentic potential. Your mind and ego's intention may not be congruent with your heart’s choice. There are only two ways you can travel. You can either move away or toward your authentic self and potential. Stop – Pause and take note of what you are thinking and your intuitive feeling. You can observe your thoughts about the situation, choice or challenge and then check in with your heart, intuition, body and pursue your choice from your values.
When you practice this technique throughout your day, you will become more efficient in recognising your authentic potential in every moment and situation. You are empowered to lead yourself and be your authentic potential NOW.
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Written by:
Darlene Rogers
Leadership Coach
Objective Leader