Sometimes, when faced with a challenging situation that calls for you to get outside your comfort zone and push yourself beyond what you think is possible, be attentive to a self-limiting thought pattern of putting yourself into a competitive set that supports your fears versus your purpose.
I am working with a client who is considering pursuing his purpose (a calling that refuses to be quieted any longer) versus simply finding another job. In getting him to commit to a few concrete next steps toward that purpose, he has shared with me how he stacks up against his 'competition' who have what he sees as strengths that far outweigh his own.
He's stuck...and, left unchallenged, his fears could keep him from pursuing his purpose by using deceptive competitive logic.
I shared with him how in the early days of my path to becoming a coach, I had to fight the urge to view Tony Robbins as what I had to become in order for me to consider myself a success. It was a set up for failure I nurtured in my head that I knew I had to bust through.
(For the record, in the last seven years not one of my clients has asked me to be coached through walking with Oprah over a path lined with hot coals. If it comes up, though, that referral will go to Tony as that's his thing, not mine.)
As I see it, when pursuing your true purpose, competition is like beauty. It is in the eyes of the beholder. And because it is MY purpose, the uniqueness of ME trumps all competition.
Last week, I met up with an old friend whose career has taken her toward more of a calling as a hospice nurse - making home visits helping patients in the end stages of life. She shared with me the challenges and hardships of this type of work along with the types of fears she must
confront every day.
When I asked her what she enjoys most about her work, she told me that it has helped her to manifest something that she is very, very good at...something she now knows without any trace of doubt is her purpose, or gift:
'I make people feel safe.'
I was struck in that moment by the certainty and confidence with which she articulated that. Sitting across the table and feeling that energy allowed me to empathize with what her patients must feel when that gift is poured out through the tasks she performs for them.
That's not to say her personal fears are not present, rather it is to say that she doesn't allow them to lead her actions. Instead, her innate connection to her purpose (making people feel safe) is the driving force.
To say her patients are blessed to have her be part of their final life transition is an understatement. And, in a fully unselfish way, she knows that and she owns it. In her own unique purpose, there is no one else like her, anywhere...
she is incomparable.
This week, as you face what moves you out of your comfort zone toward your true purpose, find the place
where your in-comparability lies.
Make choices based on your purpose,
rather than your fears.
-Mastin Kipp
