A Brief Overview:
▪️ “The affirmation of one’s own life, happiness, growth and freedom, is rooted in one’s capacity to love”, Erich Fromm.
▪️ Acknowledging your emotions gives you the data to help you focus. Are your daily tasks intentionally aligned with your created future?
Focus, tasks, and conscious intention
Are the things that you do every day, fully aligned with you and how you build your future?
I was coaching a new client last week who was struggling with fear, uncertainty, and achievement. “What am I good at?” as the words and tension sitting above his shoulders – in his head.
We have been taught to think with our heads and in fact, we teach people to think. Analysing, observing, feedback, growth. And all of this is important to remain detached and within our boundaries – our agreements to not get caught in the drama. To use our intellect to make good decisions.
Yet, the smartest people I’ve ever worked with also use emotion. A common example is that when something falls out of alignment, it causes tension, perhaps anxiety, stress, confusion, and uncertainty. This misalignment is exceptionally common, and what they want is some assurance – an answer – in how to resolve this. They want to be in full alignment with their goal.
These emotions that arise are important in today’s self-leadership. This is emotional intelligence and intuition in action.
I wrote a post on LinkedIn, sharing my thoughts on the world we live in. A world of consumerism, where we acquire everything, and we expect that acquisition. Those instant fixes and results.
Many of my private coaching clients are men.
Senior, responsible, accountable, smart, driven men.
They work in high-tech, fast, evolving, customer and product-driven businesses. Founders, leaders, husbands, and fathers.
This description is the same as the women I work with, yet the biggest differentiator I have noticed between working with men and women is the heavy weight of expectations on men is significant. The path before has a responsibility that they have to hold it together, and where emotion doesn’t come into play.
And I find that interesting. Because I recognise all of this too, except the expectation on self is significant, and the expectation from others is that as a parent/carer, the responsibility swings towards those roles over work. This is an important distinction and would love to hear what you think.
The world is shifting, and I’m grateful for that. People want better for themselves and their families. Though it doesn’t change that the shift against the norm is hard. With the shoulds and I wants, feature all the things fallible in humans – overwhelm, overthinking, imposter feelings, and indecision.
Balancing the pleaser, servant leader, high performer, high achiever, and high earner, to their desire to want to quit and start elsewhere.
But to get sustained results – a future you want – investment in time and effort is key. Not from books or videos – but from yourself.
In a world of consumption, it’s ourselves that we are missing the most. The deep alignment to where we are going, and the goals to be achieved. It’s time to stop overconsumption, and time to reinvest.
I saw this image – great questions to ask yourself:
Three Things:
- Read this article – How to Lead with Emotional Intelligence by Steve Taplin, CEO of Sonatafy Technology
- Ask yourself the questions in the image above. Are the tasks you are doing on a daily basis, aligned with what you want for your future?
- Read The Art of Being, by Erich Fromm.
Your negative thoughts affect your happiness and performance. Take the free questionnaire here to discover what’s getting in your way. Share the results with me and let’s talk.
Photo by Robert Ruggiero on Unsplash
