You Can't Be Great... If You're Living The Wrong Life

Everyone has advice about what we should do with our lives.

Our family, our friends, our bosses, our religion and a billion other people on the internet, to name a few.

But how do we decide what we should be doing?

What types of work, lifestyle, relationships would help us create a life we really love?

Living a “Mis-matched” Life

As we grow up, for the most part we simply cobble together what our lives look like.

We randomly discover things we like to do.

We find whatever work is available to sustain us.

And much too often, the two are unrelated.

So is it a surprise we often end up asking ourselves “Why am I doing this?”

Change The Game

Even from a young age, we intuitively have qualities that we identify as being uniquely “us.”

And within our DNA, each of us was born with a custom set of natural strengths to help us.

From day one, these abilities put us ahead of the curve within those areas.

Being Honest With Ourselves

It’s popular to tell everyone “You can be anything you want to be!”

But the fact is, that’s not true.

If we don’t have a strong genetic bias in our DNA for math, we will never be a great mathematician.

If we are not naturally wired to have very fast eye / body coordination, we won’t be a great racer. This doesn’t mean we can’t enjoy doing these activities to a proficient level, and get some real personal satisfaction from doing them.

Golf is probably one of the greatest examples.

But without having a natural strength for it, even with focused effort, we won’t truly excel.

Know What Game To Play

What if we were clear about the value we see in ourselves?

What if we could create a detailed view of our identity, our most powerful natural strengths, and our underlying purpose that drives to to succeed?

What if we had a clear vision for what we want our experience of life to be?

And then use that combined knowledge to point us in the direction where we’re most likely to succeed?

How could that change our level of satisfaction and fulfillment in our lives?

With that clarity, what types of work would we pursue?

What social groups would we intentionally connect with?

What personal characteristics would we recognize as better for us in our relationships?

Seeing The Value Of Who You Are

When was the last time you stopped to get a clear perspective on what you value most about being “You?”

With the frenzied pace most of us live, it’s likely the answer is “never.”

What If…

What if you could get this clarity?

How could that expand the limits of how you see yourself? How might it open new possibilities you’d missed before?

Might this grounded appreciation for what you bring to the table in life provide a new foundation to guide you in daily life decisions?

Building On Strengths vs Building Up Weaknesses

The conventional wisdom has been that to be a balanced person, we need to focus our personal and professional development on building up our weaknesses. Our strengths will take care of themselves.

And spending time gaining a clear appreciation of what we value about ourselves was considered selfish and self-centered. Not a desirable pursuit.

Especially today, with our society so focused on who’s the best, too many people discount the power of their own unique value. When they do, it diminishes not only their personal success, but ultimately their entire experience of life.

Research That Started Changing Minds

Thanks to decades of research and thought leaders like Dr. Donald O. Clifton, former CEO of Gallup, Inc, a world leader in skills assessment (you’ve probably heard of their Gallup Polls, etc.), you and I now have a powerful edge.

Dr. Clifton spent most of his life researching this question:

If we spent our time building upon our strengths, rather than shoring up our weaknesses, would it produce greater success and a deeper sense of personal fulfillment?

His more than fifty years of extensive research uncovered a very valuable, and different perspective.

Build Upon Who We Already Are

Once we get beyond developing our core “life functional” skills, like math, reading, writing, etc., it’s up to us to decide where to focus our lives.

Based upon data derived from millions of assessments and over 50 years of research by Dr. Clifton and Gallup, they found:

“People who use their strengths every day are six times more likely to be engaged in their work and three times more likely to say they have an excellent quality of life.” Gallup, Inc.

Create Your Life…Intentionally

We all have a choice.

Instead of “cobbling” our lives as we go, we now have the opportunity to intentionally focus what we do specifically around areas were success and fulfillment are most likely to occur for us.

By starting with this foundation, knowing what we value about ourselves, what we are naturally built to be good at, and the “Why” that drives all we love to do, we can begin to intentionally align what we do in our lives, with the use of the best of who we truly are.

As we do, we transform not only our own lives, but the lives of those around us.

Proven Tools Re-applied

Many tools and methods have been created and vetted by researchers in the fields of Psychology and Science to help us more quickly get clarity around what we value and what we are naturally talented at.

For example, psychologists and personal development researchers have created methods that can help us more quickly gain perspective on what we value about ourselves.

Strengths assessment and skill matching has worked very effectively in business. It helps assemble better balanced teams, and helps align tasks with people who have a natural ability to accomplish them more rapidly.

What if we took the same proven technology and applied it at a much more fundamental level:

How we make choices in our lives.

Many of us were given personality and other tests in school during our teenage years. Those tests were supposed to help us get clear on what professions or types of work would be best for us.

I took those tests, saw the results and then said (in my head) “interesting, thanks.”

And that was the end.

Those “personal assessments” felt more like dream crushers, rather than a vision of the greatness in my future.

Recognizng The Power We Already Have

What if we did things differently?

What if we selected specific tools and techniques from this research and then used them to accelerate us along a clear success path towards the experience of life we want?

A Success Path To Follow

As we all know, just because we know something doesn’t mean we can put it to use.

To intentionally create a life we love, we need not only knowledge, but a path to follow and a tribe of good people to help us along the way.

The Power Of Intentional Living Membership was designed to be exactly that. A place where people who want to go in a new direction in their life can follow a path that helps them develop clarity for making those decisions.

A path that if they got nothing else but a clear head about how much value they already have, would be worth the trip.

Because choose to focus our time on helping our Membership succeed, our Membership is only open a few times a year to accept new members.

If you’d like to be notified when the next time our doors open, join our WaitList by clicking on the link below.

You really can live a life that matters, to you. Maybe it’s time to follow a better path.