This week marks five years since I nearly died by suicide. Through my own personal experience, plus my years as a pastor and a life coach, it has become painfully clear that I am not alone in feeling buried under piles of shame, secrets, fear, and unrealistic expectations. If you’ve come through a hard time and are left wondering who you really are, why you’re here, and where you’re going, this is the post for you! These are the four habits of self-discovery I’ve learned during recovery from the worst day of my life
1)Self-Discovery
“If your identity is broken, your life is broken.” Self-discovery is the first step in recovering your life. It starts with getting really honest about who you are.
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Mike Foster says, “If your identity is broken, your life is broken.” Self-discovery is the first step in recovering your life. It starts with getting really honest about who you are. What do you want from this one life you’ve been given?
Recovering your life doesn’t necessarily require you to move an inch. You don’t need a new car, new house, new clothes, or new wife. You just need new vision. If you’re ready to take your life back, most of the time you don’t have to go anywhere. If you’re tired of feeling unfulfilled in the life you’re living, it’s rarely about external things. It doesn’t have a thing in the world to do with geographic location. You just need fresh perspective about the life, gifts, talents, and dreams you already have.
Self-discovery is like getting glasses for the first time. Suddenly, a life that’s been fuzzy and unclear starts to come into focus.
2) Silencing Your Inner-Critic
What do you say to yourself when things aren’t going well? When that internal dialogue starts to happen, how do you respond? Do your shoulders tense? Does your breath shorten? Your pulse start to race? Do you feel yourself shrinking back in shame?
The inner-critic is that voice inside your head that tells you all sorts of horrible lies. Have you heard it lately? Do you hear it so often that it’s hard to distinguish between your voice and that of your critic?
When is the last time your inner-critic showed up? What did he or she say? How do you wish you’d responded? If you could muster the courage to speak back, what would you say? How does it make you feel when you think of combatting the lies you tell yourself?
Silencing the voice of the inner-critic allows you to connect with the voice of inner-Love
3) Self-Care
Self-care means creating a lifestyle of focused emotional health and clarity. It means I can no longer ignore my pain or triggers and hope for the best. I cannot just keep up appearances. I cannot sweep things under the rug any longer.
Recovering my life has forced me to peel back layers of shame and secrets and find the abundant life underneath. Healing has come by learning it’s actually healthy to consider my own feelings. To be compassionate to myself. To know my own limits. Because giving up is no longer an option.
4) Self-Expansion
Recovering your life doesn’t necessarily require you to move an inch. You don’t need a new car, new house, new clothes, or new wife. You just need new vision.
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Are you ready to increase your potential and leave the biggest mark possible on the world? Here’s my advice – don’t call it a dream, call it a plan. Fear tells us it’s a dream. Fear tells us we can do anything, within reason. Fear is the very thing that imposes limiting beliefs, perspectives, and assumptions on our lives. Fear keeps us from living into our fullest potential. But faith comes along, shouting, “Pull up the anchor! Sail away! Do what seems impossible!
”In a recent article for Success Magazine, Jim Rohn said the three components of any powerful goal are these:
- It must be inspiring.
- It must be believable.
- It must be one you can act on.
Are you ready to act? Click here to download my Self-Discovery Starter Kit today. This free kit includes a series of four emails, with worksheets for each section of self-discovery. With the right tools and perspective, you can absolutely expand your universe. Together, we can do what seems impossible.
Photo by Georgie Pauwels