Phil Askew wants to know: “what is it that wakes and shakes you up?”
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Throughout my life I have been looking for that which really fires me up. You know the feeling you get when you are in flow? When time stands still and you lose yourself in what you are doing? That’s the stuff I go after, don’t you?
I can’t live the life of 9-5, one day to the next, not anymore. Breakfast, lunch then dinner, off to bed at 11.30pm SHARP…that kind of thing. For some that works, structure and routine offer great security and the sense that things are nice and predictable, there will be no surprises (including nasty ones). If I can control and plan my day then I can relax. AHH! No, It fills me with angst. You probably feel the tone in the writing?
Now this doesn’t mean that I am entirely against structure, not at all, some well planned and executed process is incredibly useful, what I am saying is not to BANK on structure to fill your life with purpose, not to get hooked on planning to provide you with fulfilment. (BTW. this is all a letter to myself incidentally, if it resonates with you too, great.)
So if not planning and process what else?
A MISSION! PURPOSE, A REASON TO LIVE!
You need to get in touch with that which turns you on, fills you with fire, grounds you, WAKES AND SHAKES YOU UP.
Ghandi, Martin Luther King, Superman, Luke Skywalker, ALL knew what they had to do. They found that deep sense of purpose that lives at the core of their being, the tickle that turns into an itch, that grows into an uncontrollable NEED to move. To bring change in something important to them.
These people had no idea how they were going to do it, they just knew they had to try. They could stand teetering on the brink of complacency, on the edge of the cliff no more-they lept into what they felt MUST change.
How do you find your mission? How do you know you have hit upon something that will be big enough to keep you going, and, will provide you with enough drive, resource, motivation and persistence to get it done?
You FEEL it in your gut. You knew it from the moment you were born. It’s soul-level. Deep, it runs in your blood, it WANTS for you and DEMANDS that you are the person who can make this change happen.
You won’t hear your mission in the noise of ‘doing’ the repetitive job that fills your hours. In the activities that clutter your days.
You need to stop, to not think, to cease working things out and proving yourself right to look good to others, to be accepted by society.
Your mission waits in the still and tranquility of your knowing. Sink into your heart and listen. Take a breathe. Be willing to venture into the darkness of your own cave, what’s in there?
Ask yourself:
‘what do I need to do in order to feel a deep sense of wholeness?’
‘What matters to me more than looking successful to the world around me?’
Take your time-we rarely do these days, keep exploring further into that cave. Because what I can guarantee is that deep within every single person is a diamond. Unique and precious. It wants you to find it, and diamonds don’t shine in the dark, covered in mud and grime, buried.
Diamonds need the light of your awareness upon them, so as to be radiant, to sparkle, to gleam, so you fall in love with them, and to capture the hearts of those you will lead.
If you are considering traveling down your very own path of personal exploration, mensfundamentals.com might be your next step. Something very exciting is about to happen…
Want to go caving now? Sign up for our upcoming 3-day men’s workshop and find your mission.
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