Do you make life harder than it needs to be?
People who have done career coaching me know that I often talk about the benefits of being in “flow”. The term “flow” refers to our most resourceful state, when we achieve the most with the least amount of energy. We do what we love doing and in a way that plays to our natural strengths. Being in flow makes life easy. It feels light, inspiring and fulfilling.
There are three parts to being in “flow”:
1. WHAT you need to do to get in flow
Many people feel stuck in their jobs, or in lifestyles that exhaust them. They may even resent their daily life. This can happen if we don’t really know what we value and then adopt a job or lifestyle that matches the values of people around us, but not our own.
For example, when I chose to become a lawyer, I just didn’t know what else to do. So by default I chose a career that the people around me valued. My father and sister were lawyers and society generally seemed to regard the legal profession as a worthy career. Later in my life I realised that I thrive best when working in the area of personal growth and that’s when I decided to become a life coach. I have found my natural flow and my days feel fresh and inspiring now.
Another example is when you tag along with your friends doing activities that you don’t really enjoy that much. Maybe your friends spend time in clubs and bars while you would rather do something quieter. Yet you join in with your friends’ interests because you think that’s what people do and you don’t see any alternatives.
When we become clear on our values, we have an opportunity to optimise our life. By pursuing those things that we value most, we enter our state of flow. Nobody needs to remind us to do the activities that are high on our values list; we have no trouble getting things done and are likely to be performing well in those areas.
If you want to find out what your highest personal values are, I recommend the Demartini Values Determination Process® which you can complete here for free. It’s by miles the best value determination process that I have come across. Yet a word of caution: although you can complete the test on your own, it’s better to do it with one of Demartini’s certified facilitators, such as myself. Whenever clients complete the process by themselves, they tend not to go deep enough and arrive at values that are not truly meaningful. Email meat info@hansschumann.com if you would like me to take you through the process step by step.
2. HOW you need to do “your thing” to be in flow
Once you know what you need to do to get into flow, you also need to think about the how. For example, I love coaching, but there are lots of very different ways to work as a life coach. I could try to become a star coach like Anthony Robbins and model all the steps he took to become successful. However, the same strategy would not work for me. I am an introvert and thrive better working in different ways than Anthony Robbins, who shines running massive, high-energy events with thousands of attendees. Although I can give a decent public speech and even enjoy it, in the long term it would drain me of energy. My core strengths are best utilised by doing deep one-to-one work with my private life coaching clients.
To find out what your core strengths and best ways of working are, I recommend the Wealth Dynamics profile test which you can take here. It will provide you with a comprehensive report and bonus material that will identify your individual personality and give you a clear direction on what path to follow in your job, business and investments.
3. Going with THE flow
Yet it’s not all just about your flow. You will make your life even easier when you add your flow to the flow of your industry, markets and customers. When you are at the beginning of your career or wealth creation, at any rate, it’s not efficient to dig out your own riverbed for your own flow. Add yours to the existing flow created by others.
If you run a business, this could mean creating affiliations and partnerships with people who are already in your line of business or otherwise connected to your customers. If you are an employee, it could be working with relevant industry bodies and networks. If you are an investor, it could be piggy-backing on other people’s investment. This is the easiest way to get started.
Of course, once you are a Steve Jobs, Oprah Winfrey or Mark Zuckerberg, you no longer need to follow the flow of others. You can easily create your own riverbed that others will follow. You can then change markets and customer behaviours to suit your goals and ambitions. Until then, find your flow and align it to the flow of your industry. Again, your Wealth Dynamics report will help you with this.
3. But isn’t hard better?
Hand on heart: are you one of those people who think that things are only worth doing if they are difficult? If it’s too easy, it can’t possibly work! Does trying to do it the easy way sound too lazy to you?
It’s worth watching out for this sort of mindset, because if that’s what we really believe then, that’s what life will bring us. Our beliefs determine how we experience life. We will miss easy opportunities, because unconsciously we always look for the hard way; then we are surprised if after a few years of rolling our stones uphill, we feel burnt out and frustrated.
Life can be easy if you want it to be. What’s it going to be for you?
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