What is your experience in your own head like? Do you have a series of tapes playing over and over (and they aren’t saying the nicest, most productive things!)? Does it feel like a band of monkeys (aka “Monkey Mind”) are swinging from the trees in an insane Muppet-like manner?
Almost everyone has experienced this at some time or another…but what I’m asking you is do you feel like this a lot? Does it sometimes feel like you are a prisoner in your own head?
I know I was held hostage by my mind for a very long time. I was a deeply left-brained person who wanted proof of everything and thought seeing was believing no matter what. Let’s face it, I was highly analytical, good at math, and the whole “thinking thing” is what allowed me to be well-rewarded academically for decades. It was my ticket to achievement. The people I respected most…encouraged all this critical thinking and reinforced the fact that having a “good head on your shoulders” and “developing your mind” were the keys to success.
This all served me very well, at least from the outside looking in, except that I was a prisoner to my own thinking. I found myself stuck in analysis paralysis, torturing myself over making the “right” decisions, and often frozen in a state of indecision or incremental decision (you know the kind where you just creep your way bit by bit into a decision because you’re too afraid to really commit until you find yourself flung so far down an ill-fitting path that you say to yourself “how the hell did I end up here?”).
Can you relate?
Now the mind itself isn’t bad, in fact it is extremely powerful. It’s just that when you only engage your intellectual mind you’re missing out on more than half the story. You aren’t just a walking; talking head… you’re a full human being. Someone who is wonderfully, fearfully made and capable of far more than your left brain could ever concoct. You’re someone with access to more than five senses (without getting too woo-woo, let’s just say we’re all living a mystery beyond what we can explain) and the ability to tap into something more powerful than knowledge, and that is wisdom.
Knowledge is information, it is learning, it is thinking. We need knowledge both general and specific in order to live effective lives.
Wisdom is a deep knowing and keen discernment. It goes beyond knowledge and into a deeper understanding of yourself or a situation. From wisdom flows sound judgment and decisions far more powerful than what can come from knowledge alone.
You might think of wisdom as something only for philosophers, or age-old sages. But that would not be true. It is meant for you too.
The sweet spot is in the integration of your knowledge and wisdom. This blending of your intelligence and intuition in what I call Intuitive Intelligence™. It is your ticket to freedom from the tyranny of your own thoughts. When you come from this place you naturally make wiser decisions, have more confidence, and feel more certainty about who you are, what you are here to offer, and the choices you make.
I’ll be the first to tell you that making this shift can feel very scary and uncomfortable. I know it did for me. After all it is not what you’re used to. It’s not the “norm”. But what you’re “used to” will get you more of what you’re already experiencing. And, the “norm” leaves you hanging-out in the status-quo with everyone else kvetching about how hard it is, how impossible things are, or how you can’t do – be – have what you most desire. Is that really what you want from your one, precious life? I didn’t think so…
So for today give yourself the gift of opening to the possibility of something better and easier than you already know. Declare that you are willing to give attention to the power of wisdom already present in your life.
Your Coaching Action Step
Do this powerful exercise to honor the wisdom you have already demonstrated and build awareness of how to consciously use it now and in the future.
Think back to a powerful decision you made in your life that truly made a positive difference for you. It might be personal or professional… but it is one that was a pivotal moment for you. The key is that it made a meaningful difference for you. Did you wrestle this decision solely out of your head or was there a little something-something extra that led you to that decision? (You might not even be able to name it or might not have even been aware of it at the time, but as you reflect back take note of what aspects were at play in your decision.)
You can do this exercise for a handful (or more) of the important decisions you’ve made over the years… and just notice if there is a trend between the amount of mind-wrestling (or not) and your satisfaction with the outcome of your decision.
Are you ready to break free of the mind-terrorists that have kept you confined, stuck, and banging your head in frustration? If so, one powerful conversation can hold your ticket to freedom. To have that conversation, submit an application for a Breakthrough Acceleration Meeting at http://www.thepaulagcompany.com/application.
