three paths to an awakening
A friend of mine helped me verbalize that there are three common paths to an individual experiencing an “awakening” and making drastic changes in their life to move closer to their authentic life.
1. An extreme personal event. Loss of a loved one, a break-up, losing a job, mental breakdown, etc.
2. A near-death experience. Self-explanatory.
3. Achieving their “life-changing” goal. Achieving the goal they’ve been pursuing for so long in anticipation of it changing their life or bringing fulfillment, only to find out nothing has change and they aren’t any closer to feeling fulfilled. It’s like the old analogy of reaching the top of a mountain only to realize you climbed the wrong one.
Looking at them, would you willing pick one?
Even though at the end of each path you will have the opportunity, courage, and motivation to choose to live your authentic life, would you really want to have to experience any of these?
I’m willing to bet most people would not choose to go down any of these paths. Yet, very few “awakenings” to the authentic life occur without the trauma associated with them. I understand WHY people wake up and take back control of their life after these traumatic paths.
What I don’t understand is why more people aren’t more proactive and move towards their authentic life and avoid these paths.
That’s a lie. I do understand why…we’re not encouraged to live our authentic lives. Society has a different narrative for the lives we’re supposed to live and the paths we’re supposed to follow; it isn’t until one of these paths is experienced that someone either realizes they have more control over their life or that what was told to be “the way” really wasn’t for them.
Most people need to be shocked into realizing the life they are living is not the life for them.
I have good news though…
I don’t believe you have to experience the pain of these three paths to realize your authentic life and begin living it. One important detail to mention is that living your authentic life does not mean you will not experience one of these paths—the authentic life is not a perfect life. But, everything is a little easier to navigate when you are living a life true to your Self.
My hope for these Daily Notes, the LifeDesign+ podcast, the Keep Pursuing Series, all of my creative content, and the AlignedLife+ and LifeDesign+ relationships is to help more people experience their “awakening” without having to experience the trauma of an extreme personal event, a near-death experience, or the disappointment of realizing they reached the peak of the wrong mountain.
You can wait for a traumatic experience and everything that comes with it to help you find your authentic life, or you can begin to get to know your Self, aling your spirit, mind, and body, and begin to move closer to your authentic life today.
The choice is yours.
🎧 Listen to today's Note on the LifeDesign+ podcast.
See you tomorrow and keep pursuing,
JC
🦅 Some ways I might be able to help you live your authentic life:
🤝 One on Ones Let's hop on Zoom to do a guided meditation, a creative brainstorming session, or an overcoming an obstacle session.
📝 LifeDesign+ LifeDesign+ is rooted in the Kinder Institute of Life Planning’s EVOKE process, which is a five-step process to help discover what your authentic life looks like and begin to design a plan to bring that life to reality. It continues to incorporate the alignment of your spirit, mind, and body to ensure you evolve with your authentic life, as the authentic life is not a destination, it’s an evolution.
💸 AlignedLife+ AlignedLife+ (and the one-time engagement AlignedLife) takes LifeDesign+ to the next level by aligning your finances with your authentic life at RLS Wealth. For individuals looking for a financial advisor to help design and manage their financial plan while maintaining the alignment of spirit, mind, body, and money, AlignedLife+ was created specifically for you.
📈 LifeDesign+ for financial advisors LifeDesign+ for financial advisors mirrors the LifeDesign+ relationship, including the focus on the alignment of spirit, mind, and body, with an important distinction—once the plan for your authentic life has been designed, we shift our focus to integrating your new plan with your practice.
🤝 Outsourced life planning As your outsourced life planner, you bring me in to take your client through the Kinder Institute of Life Planning’s EVOKE process to help them better understand who they are, what they want their life to look like, and create a vision of this life for you to execute on the financial plan. Since you are their financial advisor, you will be a part of each of the meetings, so you understand the “why” behind your client’s new plan.
