Stepping into your potential
The Switch, Issue #17: Ideas, tools and resources for people who want to live a meaningful life.
Beyond the door you fear opening lies a better, lighter life. After becoming free from the fear of rejection, I’m becoming more prolific in creating content online. I’m sharing daily vlogs on Instagram and posting regularly on LinkedIn. The more I express myself, the more I’m finding my inner voice. This feels exciting.
The only way to overcome a fear, as the (true) cliché goes, is to face it. What are you afraid of doing in the next few days that you know needs to be done? Hit “reply” to tell me – then I’ll hold you accountable to do it 😉
🎙️ Pushing Your Comfort Zone with Entrepreneur & Performer Tony Shriller, Principled? Podcast, Episode 4
How can you push beyond your comfort zone? In episode 4, I explore my fourth principle for life: “Strive to thrive, not just survive. Step outside your comfort zone to really experience life.” Together with guest Tony Shriller, an entrepreneur & performer, we discuss how we can push our limits to achieve what we thought was impossible.
🧠 Myers-Briggs Personality Test
Aged 16, this was the first personal development test I ever took. While you might have done this before, your type changes. I used to be an ENTJ, “The Commander”. Since developing my emotional intelligence, I’m now an ENFJ, “The Teacher” – pretty fitting, I like to think. Are you living in alignment with your type?
📝 What should you work on? - David Perell
“There are too many talented people who sleepwalk through their workday.” Perell is one of the few people whose newsletter I subscribe to. He’s a young intellect, who’s the master of writing online. This short essay explores five sectors that smart people should be devoting their working lives to.
Welcome to The Switch! If you’re new around here, sign up to receive the newsletter straight to your inbox every two weeks:
To learn, you must first unlearn
Personal development traditionally focuses on the future - setting goals that we work towards achieving. But without looking to the past, we cannot move forward effectively. We drag along and are dragged along a legacy infrastructure that slows us down, or worse, misdirects us.
While growing up in our society, we develop beliefs to make sense of the world. Some of these guide us in positive ways through life – others prevent us from living fully. I hear many of these from my clients.
- “I can only be happy when I get promoted to manager.”
- “If I make less money in my next job, it’s a step-down.”
- “My work-day is supposed to feel tough.”
How could we allow ourselves to find work that we love if we believe it's supposed to feel like a chore? If it doesn't feel like a chore, we believe it's not valuable.
For me, personal development is primarily about identifying the beliefs I have about myself and our existence, evaluating whether those beliefs actually true and then deciding whether they serve me. If they're irrational and don't serve me, I discard the beliefs and adapt my behaviour. I did this with drinking alcohol, working a 9-to-5 job and living in the UK. Don't get me wrong, you might do one or all of these things, which is fine - if you've consciously chosen for them. If you haven't done that, you won't know whether what you're doing and how you're living are really optimal for you.
Unlearning is why my first two principles for an extraordinary life focus on being authentic and knowing yourself. With your self-awareness in hand, you can break the chains of limiting societal beliefs and achieve (almost) anything you want.
This is easier said than done - but it can be done. Check-out the Dickens Process that will guide you through eliminating your limiting beliefs. I experienced it at Tony Robbin's Unleash the Power Within event last month. It was transformational.
What switch will you make?
-Tom