Blog 6: what's going to stop you is already waiting for you

[Miniseries - 'Groundwork', step 2/2 from a growth framework - piece 1]

The topic this week circles around step 2/2 from the first phase of the growth framework. The phase is still Groundwork as it was last week, but the step is Core Pillars and Value Sets - but to be clear, this little piece is just an intro to the first thing to discuss here, and that is, psychology. Only a slice, but a pivotal piece of the step.

Last week, if you joined in, you will have read about repositioning a mindset for growth, which was a lot to do with why we might want to grow at all. My answer to that in a few words was basically that we change not to live a better life on the other side, but instead, that we grow as a means to experiencing life through more of ourselves that is revealed along the way. That, rather than pre-determining where we are going, instead we might work to optimise all parts of ourselves in order to realise our own unique experience of life.

The purpose of this next step, Core Pillars and Value Sets; which by the way is spread across quite a few gradual blogs to let you soak up the thoughts; is ultimately to create a practical vehicle for optimising those parts of self, with which to realise that growth. In simple terms, we break up how and on what, we spend our time, so that we can get granular about where we are really going.

Longest story short about what you're about to discover over the next few weeks, is that 'Core Pillars' pertains to the 8 core areas we spend all of our time in our days (think nourishment, movement, work etc), and thus the parts of ourselves that I'm suggesting we focus our trajectories of growth in. 'Value Sets' pertains to the values we apply to those contextual areas of growth. A way for us to be intentional about the direction we are moving, in real, applicable ways rather than just theory, and with holistic diversity to ensure we arrive to wherever it is we aim to go, as a well rounded human, sans any extreme tunnel vision. This is a real fancy way of organising your calendar and setting 'goals', then marrying those together, to put it simply. And by fancy, I mean brilliant, I hope, but I'll let you decide.

That's the nuts and bolts of it. But as usual, if all we needed were nuts and bolts, we wouldn't be human. Emotions, and the stories we tell ourselves about them, are the essence of our beings. With that, it's rarely the practical solution that we get stuck on, but instead it's the story that stands between ourselves and that next solution, that predicts how we behave in our own narrative. So, I won't just give you some headers for your 'Core Pillars & associated Value Sets', to write down on your page that seem miraculously simple for how tremendously they can re-focus your life (they will). Instead, I'll give you weeks of theory first hehe. We'll set the foundations. Honestly, these next couple of weeks are largely just sharing my exploration of breaking down how I think our entire lives are governed by psychology. I know we've heard it all before, and that's why i set out to really write it down piece by piece, to prove it to myself, and to see if this way of reading about it made more sense to you, too. Because ultimately, if you don't believe it, if you don't really start to wrap your head around that, there's little that will ever really move for us here. By breaking it down like this, it leads perfectly too, into the justification of why I've set out this methodology of organising your time and 'goals' in such a coalescing fashion.

Mind you, if you feel on board with your mindset and you want to jump straight to the practical, you can do that right here (this link will be live in the future once later weeks are published!) to start building your pillars.

So, here, all I'm doing is preparing you for this little journey, before we begin to explore this psychology idea more deeply.

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Next, when we dive in, I'll tell you how I think you're already applying this method of psychology to your life, and how you're already very good at it. The trouble is, as a tool, you're using it against yourself at the moment, and I'm going to show you how you can use it FOR yourself instead. Before we begin, I want you to remember that. Remember that you are already applying this step in your life, and you are doing it incredibly well. As you begin to intellectualise what's happening in these steps, there will be times - I will keep talking you through them - that you begin to think it is too complex, or too difficult for you to wrap your head around or to maintain. But, figure this - right now, you're wondering what it even is that you're already doing, because you have no idea that you're even doing it and yet - take my word for it - you're doing it incredibly well.

I want you to remember that, because when you do think you wont be capable, i want you to recall that at a point in time, you didn't even know you were doing it, and if you want to, some day soon again, you will be just as unaware that you are doing it. Only this time, you will be using this tool FOR yourself, not against.

The point of it all? Psychology is the only reason that you aren't progressing to where you want to. By talking about why you've ordinarily stopped your pursuits (which we'll do as we explore these pillars), we can get ahead of the curve. As they often say, 'if you don't have a target, you can't hit it' - well, I'll put forward - if you don't know your enemy, how will you spot the intruder? So, as the title of this blog reads, 'what's going to stop you is already waiting for you,' is to say, it's not some limit you'll find out there, but it's an inside job, it's just waiting to happen. And if that's the case, it isn't really a limit as much as it's just misguided armour, is it?

Next, I'm sharing where to begin on your hunt for your psychology at play, beginning with my ideas around the narrative it depicts for our life.