Vital Leadership Step One: Know yourself

“Vital: full of spirit; manifesting or characteristic of life.”

The first step to living a vital life is to know and understand yourself.

By the time we reach middle adulthood, our learned beliefs about how to be successful on the job, in relationships, and in other important roles are often based upon pleasing our bosses, spouses or other important people in our lives. The problem with this is that we learn to base our self worth and definition of success on extrinsic factors, and as a result we lose touch with our authentic selves. If you find yourself with a vague sense of dissatisfaction even after achieving exactly what you set out to accomplish, or with a lack of motivation to improve your performance in certain areas, or an increasing sense of boredom with your life or job, or even if you unexpectedly find yourself in transition, it is a good time to take a look at your life to be sure that the life you are living is the life you truly desire.

In my coaching practice, I like to have my clients begin this process by uncovering their values and intrinsic strengths.

Visual Thesaurus defines values as “beliefs in which you have an emotional investment.” Our limbic system is naturally programmed to avoid change and to stay firmly in status quo. However, our heart is stronger than our brain, and other positive emotions can be used to overcome fear and avoidance of change. Because of the emotional investment underlying key values, they can become key motivators and an energy source that propels people to override their limbic system’s programming. Stated simply, when your heart invests in something, you perform better. Therefore, simply knowing and understanding the key values beneath what your heart desires can propel you towards a more fulfilling and successful life. My website posts a list of common values and walks you through the steps to uncovering your key values.

Intrinsic strengths or unique tendencies are also hard-wired into our brains, and once uncovered can be used to propel us in directions that allow us to succeed with less effort. We all have unique strengths, or tendencies that come naturally to us, but societal norms program us to focus on improving our weaknesses rather than emphasizing our strengths. My favorite source for identifying strengths is the Clifton Strengthsfinder. I provide the book and a unique key to each of my clients, but you can purchase the book through most booksellers.

Once you know and understand your values and strengths, the next step is to begin to create a vision of your desired future, using your key values as the foundation and your intrinsic strengths as a tool to achieve success.

For more information about how to live an authentic and vital life, uncover your unique brand, and market your strengths, subscribe to my blog or contact me.