Journey to MYSELF

Imagine yourself to be a pilot; a pilot who is also an inventor and a designer. Using the finest metals on earth, you invented an extraordinary ship and designed it yourself. You used your creativity and made it the most advanced and the most beautiful ship ever invented. It has extraordinary abilities other ships don’t have. It can run and fly as fast as the speed of light. It can travel the deepest oceans and the outer space. It can also travel through time. Now you are going inside your ship. Only you can run and control it. Since it has the most advanced technology, you don’t need to press any buttons or use any wheels to control it. You don’t need to say a word. It recognizes your commands through your mind. Just think where you want to go and it will bring you there. After sitting on the pilot’s seat, you fasten your seatbelt. Now, your ship is taking off. You are going to a place that no one has ever gone before. You are venturing a world that is full of adventures, full of dreams, full of hopes and aspirations. You will discover and see things that no one has ever discovered or seen before. The name of this world is MYSELF. And your venture will be called JOURNEY TO MYSELF. Look into yourself… Look inside yourself… Search for the things that only you can find. Search for the most precious stones that only you can mine. Know yourself! “Only by much searching and mining are golds and diamonds obtained, and you can find every truth with your being if you dig deeper into the mine of your soul.” (unknown) So let’s begin. Let’s start with the question that only you can answer. Ask yourself, “WHO AM I?” You can’t answer this question with full accuracy by a word, a sentence, a paragraph or a series of paragraphs. The answer might be thicker than the thickest book in the world! That’s why there is a need to divide this question into sub-questions that will at least summarize its answer. It needs to be dissected into parts that will complete its gist. Let’s start with your strengths. STRENGTHS * What are my strengths and abilities? * What are my natural talents? * What do I do especially well? What is my area of excellence? * What are my achievements? What have I done well in the past? * What skills, abilities and accomplishments account for my successes in life and in work up until now? * What is my competitive advantage? What is it that I do better than anyone else? What are the things that I do quickly and well that seem to be difficult for other people? * Where could I be excellent? Where do I have the ability to become outstanding if I were to upgrade my knowledge and skills? What do I have to learn and what skills do I have to develop to make a maximum contribution? * Where should I be excellent? * What do I really love to do? * Who are my inspirations? What are my motivations? Who are the people and what are the things that make me feel confident and courageous? * What are my positive characteristics and traits? * How do others describe me in a positive way? * What are my most important beliefs and values? What do you believe in? What do you stand for? What is really important to you? Of all the things that are important to you, what is the most important? Your knowledge about your strengths maximizes the value you see yourself as having as a person. It will boost your self confidence and self esteem or the way how much you like yourself. If you continually review it, it will tremendously improve your productivity and performance in whatever you do. WEAKNESSES * Where am I not or least productive nor effective? * What are my failures? What errors and mistakes have I done in the past? * What are my fears? What are the things and experiences that I don’t want to happen (again)? What are the situations that I don’t want to be in? * Who are the people who put me down or make me feel that I am a less person? * What are my negative characteristics and traits? * How do others describe me in a negative manner? Here’s the good news! You can turn your weaknesses into strengths. Your awareness of your weaknesses will keep you from doing, committing or repeating them. DREAMS * What are your dreams, wishes and desires in life? Dream big dreams! They have the power to motivate and inspire you toward the fulfillment of your full potential. Imagine that you have no limitations on what you can do, have, or be. GOALS * What are your goals in life? - What are your ultimate or long-term goals? - What are your short-term goals? - What are your daily goals? Your goals should be, somehow and in some way, be SMART (Specific, Measureable, Attainable, Realistic and Time-bound). GOAL SETTING is not complicated. It begins with a pad of paper, a pen and YOU. Write your goals in Present Tense. Pretend as though they already exist. Review or rewrite them every day. The process of putting these goals into paper and regularly reviewing them helps you program them into your subconscious mind. Your subconscious mind will then command you to fit and align them into your daily life. STEPS TO SUCCESS * What are the steps you would take to achieve your goals? * What are your plans of action? This is the GOAL GETTING part. Visualize your goals. Positively affirm them as accomplished. Enthusiastically combine them with your feelings and emotions to boost your belief and confidence that you can achieve them. Act as if they were impossible to fail; as though achievement of your goals was absolutely inevitable. Most importantly, ALWAYS DO SOMETHING EVERY DAY that moves you closer towards your goals. As Brian Tracy said, “Carry yourself in your daily activities with others, in everything you do and say, exactly as if achievement of your goals was guaranteed by some great power. By yard, it’s hard, but inch by inch anything is a cinch. ROADBLOCKS * What are the chokepoints in the process? What are the constraints, bottlenecks, limiting steps or factors that hold you back, stop you or slow you down in achieving your goals? Addressing your roadblocks needs your great attention. Resolve to go to work on these obstacles and concentrate your energy to them. FACILITATORS * What do you need to help addressing the obstacles or roadblocks to achieving your goals? * What else do you need to know and learn? * What knowledge, skills, etc., are required to clear these roadblocks? Success is not a chance, it is a CHOICE. The road to it is not easy. There are no shortcuts! It needs excellent knowledge about yourself and about the things that you want to achieve. And you sometimes will have to do things you’ve never done to create new and outstanding experiences which will sharpen the whole you. It also needs excellent time management. Because the moment you decide to be excellent in time management, it means you are choosing to be excellent in managing your life. This is just the beginning of your venture; JOURNEY TO MYSELF is not over yet. Keep on mining the most precious stones within you!