Your Abundance in 2006

3 Ways to Create the Future of Your Choosing

Do you ever wonder why some people achieve success while others constantly fall short?  Would you like to achieve greater success in the coming year?  After years of extensive research and experimentation, the following process has proven to create what many would call miracles.  A few years ago, a client named Joe walked through the process.  Through it, he created a future with specific pictures of his dream honeymoon, house and Harley motorcycle.  Ironically, after getting married, he realized that the exact pictures that he created came true – the walk on the beach with a lighthouse in the distance with his new wife, the white house and even the Harley motorcycle.  You too, can create these miracles for yourself.

Although more complex than the words in this article, the outline below gives you an idea of how you can fold your desired future into your present.  There are three phases in the process: 1). Self-Review – knowing who you are; 2). Environmental Alignment – reflections of reality; 3). Explicit Abundance – planting seeds of your future.  Each of these phases contains various theories in leadership, psychology, management and quantum physics.  The steps below are designed for those who desire a better future in 2006.  I hope that you’ll take the time to invest in your future by walking through the process as you read.  To increase the probabilities of your success, write down each activity as you go.

Self-Review – Knowing Who You Are

The process of self-review can be a daily practice for those who seek internal peace.  Regardless of the chaos around the world, you have complete control of how you react to various situations.  This reflective process brings reality within so that you have the tools to build toward a desired state.  The first aspect of self-review is your acknowledgement of perceptions.  Even with a simple glass of water, one perceives a half-empty glass, while another perceives a half-full glass.  Human perception is full of bias based on personal experiences.  In neuron-biological studies, this bias is created by what’s called the left-brain interpreter.  Its job is to make sense of everything so that we believe we’re in control of events around us and that we’re “right.”  A few questions to consider when reviewing yourself:

-         What unconscious assumptions am I making that create my reality?

-         What assumptions can I invent so that I can have other paths to success?

Within this self-review process, there are four specific areas of focus, or multiple intelligences of interest: intellect or analytical (IQ), emotional intelligence (EQ), somatic awareness (PQ) and spiritual consciousness (SQ).  Each deals with a specific part of who you are as a person and reveals a balance and alignment required for success.

Intellect

The intellectual aspect of who you are is simple.  This intelligence is taught to most immigrants by primary and secondary education systems.  You might think of the number of degrees you hold or your grades you received in school.  Yet, in this review, look at your conscious effort to be open-minded and to learn. A few questions to consider:

-         How am I open-minded when dealing with difficult situations?

-         What were some specific lessons that I learned that changed my behavior in the past year?

-         If I were my manager/boss, knowing what I know about myself, what would I say about my ability to learn in the past year?

Critical success factor: Create specific measurements about your ability to learn.  Each new lesson should yield a new action that must happen within a specific time frame and measured when completed.  Make yourself an action plan for personal development – like a strategic plan for a business!

Emotional Intelligence

The area of emotional intelligence is a hot topic in recent management research.  Our society has begun to realize the importance of its development.  Although a complex subject, let’s look at two specific areas for your review: fear of success and fear of failure.  Most immigrants have one or the other and often you might even have both.  Even as you read this text, your left-brain interpreter is trying to find reasons why you don’t have these fears, while your own fears motivate this reason finding.  There are many different instruments to determine your fears; here are a few areas for consideration:

-         How am I persistent in following through with every commitment?

-         Have I been over-cautious or under-cautious in certain situations in the past year?

-         How large is my ego and how does it drive my behavior?

-         What guilt do I still hold from 2005?

Critical success factor: Be honest with yourself and silence your left-brain interpreter.  Take the guilt you have and find a way to resolve it by year end.  Other wise, it will harm you in unimaginable ways.

Somatic Awareness

Somatic awareness is your knowledge of your physical wellbeing.  It is far beyond working out.  Physically, your body is an extraordinary organism that is capable of healing itself.  It does this with two basic requirements:  it requires the proper inputs and energetic flow.  The inputs are the foods you ingest.  Unfortunately, the majority of food producers are interested in their own profit, rather than your health.  In the area of energetic flow, your body reacts to all types of energies – such as stress.  If you’re in stress often, your body will inform you by having back, neck or headaches.  This is a sign that your body is restricting the flow of energy.  The long-term impact tends to lead toward heart disease or cancer.  A few thoughts to ponder:

 -         How often do I feel stressed and what specific people/events create stress?

-         How do I breathe?  Am I able to take deep breaths throughout the day?

Critical success factor: Your breath is the key to controlling the pace you move.  Learning to be aware of your breathing and slowing it down can alter your mood and reactions.  Especially during stressful situations, focusing on slow breaths will create vastly different interactions.

Spiritual Consciousness

A personal relationship toward God is one definition of spirit, while religion is a group experience.  Others may call this gut instinct or your soul.  Regardless, this is the core of who you are as a person.  At this core, your values are some of the fundamental building blocks.  They are at the foundation of all behaviors and reactions.  If we were in a workshop, we’d go through and identify each of your core values and learn to speak values.  For now, consider these questions:

 -         What is my purpose? 

-         Was I in the role that I should be for the past year?

-         What have I accomplished in 2005?

-         What are my values specifically and how do I create alignment with others?

 Critical success factor: Always seek alignment of who you are and your environment.  If you value people and work for an organization who believes people are interchangeable, you’re out of alignment. No medical doctor can permanently heal you from many of the discomforts you suffer. Only you can do that! Be true to your own calling and miracles will happen often.

 Environmental Alignment – Reflections of Reality

 Do you have courage?  If you answered yes, you may need to reconsider.  If you answered no, that’s debatable as well.  Courage does not exist until a difficult situation arises.  It’s determined by events in your life and departs once that event is over.  So, let’s see if you have courage in this next phase of the annual process.

For this phase, you’ll be asking some tough questions to people who know you well from different perspectives (spouse, partner, children, friend, boss, colleague, employee, etc.).  If you have courage, you’ll sit down with them in a comfortable environment and ask them the following questions about how they perceive you:

 -         Who am I?

-         What do you appreciate about me?

-         What do you feel are my biggest challenges?

 Take some notes as these questions are being answered.  Do not make any attempt to let your left-brain interpreter take charge and debate these reflections.  Simply listen and look at the words others use to define who you are.  Some might reflect those you learned about yourself in the first phrase – Self Review.

Critical success factor: This is a process of seeking understanding, not about solving a problem.  Do not engage in making any statements in this process; only ask questions for further clarification.

Explicit Abundance – Planting Seeds of Your Future

 The natural human tendency is to move away from pain rather than move toward pleasure.  For example, there are thousands of studies on depression, while only hundreds on happiness.  Our propensity is to use the past to determine the future.  If you stop to think about it, if we fix what’s wrong (depression for example), you get that problem fixed (no more depression).  Yet, that doesn’t create happiness, does it? 

Our current world is one with countless measurements to tell you how you’re doing and to set a box which you “should” live in.  This system likes to arrange everything in some hierarchy – groups of people, pay grades, positions, industries, etc. By doing so, they create the track on which you’re forced to compete.  Any achievement is only in a success defined by someone else.  Especially with immigrants, conversations often lead toward personal trials and triumphs, after coming to this country.  Why play in someone else’s sand box when you can create your own?

When creating a desired future, first look for the ideal.  Ask yourself:

 -         What if there were no limits, where would I be?

-         How would I like people to see me?

-         How do I consistently want to feel in 2006?

-         Who will I be in the coming year?

 Life is far from the limits of the human mind.  Some of my goal workshops focus on creating abundance, dream boards and consistency in goals regardless of situation.  For now, go and find some magazines with lots of pictures.  Cut out the pictures that attract you, nothing more.  Logic is not part of this exercise. Then glue these pictures onto a large board to make a collage.  This collage becomes a window into your heart.  See it often, share it with others and allow the possibilities to surprise you at every turn.

 Critical success factor: Life is NOT about survival!

 This annual review process is not the magic bullet.  It will help you understand some of your basic needs and potentials.  From a simple business perspective, having the diligence to go through this process will yield you incredible return on investment.  Do you have the courage to try it?

 By Dr. Ted Sun 

December, 2005

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