Human beings naturally gravitate toward one another to form groups. We’re communal—at its best, that can be a great source of support, wisdom, example, and opportunity. When you stop to think about it, you’ll be amazed to realize how many groups and communities you’re a part of family, neighborhood, city, religion, school, work, culture . . . and the list goes on! Within these groups, we absorb ways of thinking, types of beliefs, and information about appropriate behavior, how to live, how to survive, etc. Some of us are lucky—we are loved, nurtured, and supported—and what we absorb from these communities serves us well in our lives.
However, many of us are raised in groups that don’t provide what we need. We’re taught by people stuck in their own pain, immature or confused, unaware of their own limitations. Every generation has a legacy of pain built on centuries of suffering from war, racism, greed, poverty, inequality, sexism, and more. This seems to lead to more of the same—pain, suffering, and confusion.
Most of us have a combination of both in our lives. The groups that were our formative influences provided a mixture of good and bad. But we want to learn so that we have more happiness than sadness, more kindness than cruelty, more love than hate, and more success than failure. To do so, we have to learn a new way.
Women Everywhere Are Evolving
Think about how most women worldwide are conditioned to be caretakers, listeners, and homebodies. The first women to enter the workforce had to learn new ways of negotiating, communicating, and asserting themselves to function in their new roles. While we’ve come a long way since then, men have had the advantage in leadership positions because they were raised to thrive in that setting.
However, being an effective and successful leader has nothing to do with gender. While some may have been conditioned for success in certain scenarios, you, too, can accomplish your goals by following your own path of “knowing.”
Getting in touch with who you are (your values), what you know for sure, and your life purpose (what you have to offer) is what I refer to as your path of “knowing.” By homing in with clarity, you remove limitations and open up possibilities. While this may not be the “easiest” path, it is the most worthwhile. This process gives your life meaning and fulfillment that ultimately leads to happiness. If you need leadership skills, that’s what you’ll find inside. Your intuition will tell you if you need to be more nurturing or candid. I’ve seen it happen over and over again with my coaching clients.
Follow Your Own Path
To help guide this work, I’ve taken several traditional indigenous concepts, research-based science, principles of Eastern philosophy, and various practices and methods that others have discovered and refined to come up with my mix and way of describing this process. I call it The Art of Following Your Own Path. It has four components: listening, discerning, trusting, and choosing. Although I’m going to discuss these aspects one at a time, all these skills can help you be a better leader in the workplace, and I’ll cover each in this blog series.
Simply put, tapping into your inner voice, deepest knowing, or truth is a skill anyone can learn. Using this knowledge as a compass to make your best choices ultimately shapes a life worth living. The wisdom you find will apply in any area of your life, from your family and relationships to your career and passions in your life. We’ll get into the details of what this first step of the process looks like in my next blog.
Until then, start writing down what you hear from the “voices in your head,” and how they make you feel. We’ll dive deeper into the four major components to tapping into your inner truth: listening, discerning, trusting, and choosing further in the series.
If you’re ready to dive into the process with some personal guidance, get in touch with me for a free 15-minute consultation. Subscribe to my newsletter to ensure you don’t miss the next few blogs in this series!
Warmly,
