The Importance of Expressing Your Whole Self As A Purpose-Led Leader or Individual
Posted on 20th April 2022 at 09:14
Although people are familiar with my research into spirituality, meaning and purpose; my main interests in human development are actually wholeness and self-actualisation. The question I am often pondering is what does it take to cultivate and express your Whole Self?
One of the great problems we face today is, individually and collectively, we don’t feel whole. We feel fragmented. Focusing on one or two areas of the Self rather than who we are in our entirety. My decision to research spirituality was a recognition of my own fragmentation. This was the major part of who I was that was under nurtured. Like a flowerbed I forgot to water. As I achieved things easily in other areas of my life, this overlooked part of myself began to feel like a weight that was holding me back. That I could never really become who I was supposed to be or reach new heights of ‘success’ until I took the time and energy to engage with and nurture this part of who I am.
Maybe, for you, it is a different part that needs attention. No matter. Unless your neglected parts are addressed, the outcome will be the same. When any part(s) of our life takes up a large part of our energy and focus, we become linear not whole. This part becomes like the plant which overshadows the rest of who we are; using all the water and resources so nothing else can flourish. While this version of you may achieve ‘success’ in the conventional sense, real success in the lived sense becomes out of reach. We trade our fullness, our wholeness, the real depth of potential within, the joy of being truly alive for singular success.
The overarching purpose of any life is to be fully expressed. Feeling a lack of purpose is often simply a lack of wholeness; there are under nurtured parts of you yearning to be acknowledged and expressed. While purpose is often described in terms of goals and direction in life, this is too simplistic and reinforces the linear approach to life. In any purpose filled life, ‘success’ will never be linear or one dimensional. It must be fuller, more embodied. The total expression of all of who you are.
More fundamentally, I don’t believe purpose through work alone to be a brave choice. Living a fully expressed life, becoming who you are destined to be requires bravery. To make choices that unique to you and all the parts of you that deserve your attention. If you aspire to be a purpose-led leader or to live a life of purpose, an approach to your business or work which creates the space to grow and express all of who you are is a necessity. To understand that you, and everyone around you (whether it be your staff, society or your personal relationships), benefit most not from what you do but from the person you can become.
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Tagged as: entrepreneurship, Expressing your Whole self, Personal Leadership, purpose, purposeled entrepreneur, Self expression, wholeness
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