From Now to WOW: Step by Step — An Invitation to Transformation | ||
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A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.
Lao-tzu
Welcome readers! It is our sincerest pleasure to share with you this journey from Now to WOW. Imagine waking up each day and saying — WOW, what a life! Imagine knowing that no matter what transpires over the day, you will have a WOW experience. Now ask yourself what it would take to begin and end each day with a WOW attitude.
If you are ready to take a new path or even a step in a new direction, this book will serve you well. If you are looking for a new level of awareness and its accompanying breakthrough and joy, this book is for you. If you are curious about creating more WOW in your life, this may be just the inspiration you need to begin your own odyssey.
S/he who knows others is wise. S/he who knows self is enlightened.
Lao-tzu
No matter where you are in your life journey, we are grateful to be able to share our own pilgrimage and our insights gained along the way. In from Now to WOW, we have used our personal experiences and our transformational coaching practices to provide information and materials that will help you define your WOW and put a plan in place to get there.
The phrase “Know Thyself” is surely as old as human civilization. In ancient Greece, the Temple of Apollo at Delphi held this very inscription with historians attributing it to several ancient sages including Socrates and Pythagoras. The motto’s popularity has bridged both the empires of humanity and the current millennia, and is sometimes cited as: “Know thyself — and thou shall know all the mysteries of the gods and of the universe.”
Self-knowledge may be what you are seeking if you are without answers to such questions as:
What do I truly want for myself?
What is my greatest passion?
Who am I?
What brings me joy?
What are my gifts?
What do I want to contribute to the world?
Most of us spend the majority of our lives searching in our outer world for these answers only to discover that all the secrets of self and life lie within.
Self-knowledge is the most helpful tool for navigating today’s complex world. When we are aware of our passions, preferences and purpose, we are better able to choose from among life’s options those that most sustain us.
Personal Development
In our careers as transformational coaches, we recognize that successful navigation of life’s mysteries and events is directly correlated with a deep understanding of one’s beliefs, values and desires. Whether this is a conscious or unconscious awareness, the majority of our clients chose personal development as one of their main reasons for seeking coaching.
What does personal development mean to you? Take a few minutes to complete the following:
I know I am developing personally when I . . .
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Culled from the Internet, the personal development definitions below provide other perspectives.
- enjoying your life while making conscious decisions on a daily basis about everything you do.
- having more control of your own actions and emotions and staying motivated regardless of your situation or environment.
- becoming more productive and effective at work.
- maintaining focus on what really counts in all aspects of your life.
- growing and improving yourself.
- understanding and becoming more aware of yourself.
We define personal development as the journey of befriending oneself and being comfortable in one’s own skin. In essence, we are all striving to become our own best friend. How do we develop such a unique friendship? In the process of exploring our beliefs, values, desires, passions, talents and life purpose, we become intimately aware of our true nature. With this self-awareness, we come to accept and even love who we are.
Life is configured such that our outer world merely provides us with a mirror image of our inner experience. As an example, have you noted when you purchase a new car, suddenly that same vehicle seems to appear in front of you more often than before your purchase? Did all these people buy the same car the same time as you? No, these cars have always been there, but you were unaware of them until your perception triggered and began including them.
You may have already heard the statement: “Our perception is our reality.” Why is this true? On a practical note, our perception helps us clarify where we need to go and, on a personal note, what we notice around us is formed, coloured, even distorted by our perception. How we view the outer world of people, things and events is the sum total of our inner experience which is made up of our beliefs, values, past experiences, expectations and interpretations. Through the rose-coloured or sometimes darkly-shaded lens of our inner experience, we perceive the outer world and base our actions on this knowledge. Hence, all knowledge is self-knowledge.
You Are Invited
This chapter invites you to explore the Now. Through a series of exercises, you will come to an understanding — a fresh perspective — of who you are today. These tools help you move from the more obvious outer self-descriptors (your concrete characteristics) to the less obvious inner core containing your intuitive creative self. In fully exploring who you are, you may at times both marvel at your brilliance and feel trepidation about your future.
If this is your first attempt at uncovering and defining yourself, we invite you to liberally apply language to what you discover. Play with words, thoughts and concepts. Let this chapter introduce and connect what you already know to that which is below the surface, and make it concrete with your own words. For some of you it will be a refreshing review. This ‘snapshot in time’ provides a peek into the “toolkit” you currently use to play the game of life. We encourage you to adopt an attitude of lightness and expansion as you begin to sort through and express your unique footprint in the world.
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