Books by Liz Wilde -

Unlock Your Potential

£14.99
Published by Ryland, Peters & Small 2004 priced £14.99
ISBN 1841725919 BUY

PART 1
WHAT WOULD MAKE YOU REALLY HAPPY?

Happiness is the world’s most enviable commodity, yet it’s far easier to achieve than status or wealth. And there’s enough for everyone.

Step 1: FINDING YOUR PASSIONS

“Live as you like best and your character will take care of itself.” Henry James

Discovering what really matters to you is the first step to living your potential. No matter what you may think, life doesn’t have to be difficult. Do the things that are really you and life works so much better. Your passions are things that you’re naturally drawn towards and take little effort. They are you. And when you live a life that’s designed around your passions, you cannot help feeling fulfilled. Result: an inner happiness and satisfaction which comes from the knowledge you’re being totally true to yourself. From your passions come the life you’ve always dreamed of.

What gets in the way of you living your passions?

Lack of awareness
Fear
Saying yes when you mean no
Being too busy
Waiting for something to happen
Playing the victim
Living in the past or the future
Low self esteem
Should’s and supposed to’s
Not taking responsibility for your life
Stress
Living a lifestyle versus a life
Limiting beliefs
Putting yourself second (or last)
Acting out of habit
Low expectations
Not realising it’s possible to live the life you want

What’s in your heart?

When did you last feel really passionate about something? Think back to when you were last really happy. What were you doing? Exactly what was it about the situation that made you feel so good?
Read the following questions and pick out the words in italics that feel really important to you. Remember, if you’ve felt like this since you were young, this is a true passion.

What do you love to do?

Do you love to learn new things?
Or do you prefer passing your knowledge on by teaching others?

Is life an adventure or nothing at all?
Or do you prefer to feel safe and nurtured as part of a community?

Do you feel most alive when you’re laughing and having fun?
Or when you accomplish a goal (or even score one!)

Are beautiful surroundings really important to you?
Or is it more important to feel deeply connected with those around you?

Are you happiest being totally uncommitted?
Or do you feel most fulfilled showing love and compassion to others?

Do you thrive on being an expert in your field?
Do you love to inspire and influence others?
Or do you get more satisfaction offering support to those in need?

Are you uncomfortable if you’re not being totally authentic?
Are you stifled if you’re not creating something?

Do you feel happiest being part of a team or a leader?
Or do you prefer to be totally independent?

Make a list of the words that really resonate with you (and any others not included on the list that came into your head as you read it). Now, choose the five that feel the most important - these are your most powerful passions.
Commit to taking one action to support each of your five passions in the next 28 days.

If you love to learn, book a course in something you’ve always been interested in or read a quality newspaper every day.
If you love adventure, plan a trip somewhere you’ve never been before or join a mountaineering/skydiving/cycling club.
If you love beautiful things, remove everything ugly from your living space and replace at least one item with a far more attractive alternative.
If you love to feel connected, arrange a weekly family get-together or a regular night out with your closest friends.
If you love to create, enrol in an art evening class or redecorate you home.
If you love to support others, offer your help to a charitable organisation or a friend in need.

Help - I don’t feel passionate about anything!

When life is one big to-do list, you can easily forget what was once important to you. You will never get what you want if you don’t know what that is, so your first step is to slow down and take time to rediscover your passions. Switch off the TV for a month, leave work at 5.30 every night and spend time by yourself. Start to notice what you think about and what you enjoy. Try lots of new things (a cookery class, hot yoga, life drawing, salsa dancing) and listen to what your body and mind tell you. Most of us are desperate to find out what will make us happy, but never really bother to look. You need to get out there and explore life’s opportunities, because one thing’s for sure. They won’t find you while you’re sitting on the sofa every night watching other people’s lives on TV.

Reasons to design your life around your passions

When you’re living your life in harmony with your passions you’ll feel more fulfilled than you ever thought possible. Guaranteed. And that’s just the beginning...

It gives you pleasure.
Everything that brings you joy comes from your passions.
It allows you to be true to yourself.
When you know what you love to do, you can do more of it (and less of the other stuff).
It allows you to give up goals that weren’t really yours in the first place.
Once you see what you were ‘meant’ to do, you can understand why some goals you’ve had for years just haven’t happened. That’s because they were ‘should’ goals based on someone else’s agenda, rather than goals that support your passions. Give them up and watch the guilt disappear.
It makes decisions much easier.
Next time you’re faced with a decision, put it up against your passions. Which option supports what is important to you? A job abroad may sound glamorous on paper, but if feeling safe and nurtured by a close community makes you happy, living halfway around the world will not. No matter how impressive the salary.
It makes goal setting much easier too
Now you know what you love to do, you can set goals that support your passions. Do it this way and rather than struggle you’ll feel a natural pull in the right direction.
It makes sense of your behaviour around certain people or situations
Every wondered why someone can irritate you beyond belief, yet get on fine with your friends? Or how you feel suffocated in certain situations? That’s because something or someone is threatening the very things that are most important to you and you feel the need to defend yourself.
It helps you choose better environments
Now you can actively seek out the people and places that support you, knowing why they make you feel good.
It gives you far more energy.
Living a life designed around what really matters to you creates a natural energy that makes everything feel so much easier. Try it and see...

Loving what you do for a living

If you work at something you love, you will not only be happier, you’ll also be far more likely to succeed - and make more money! The world’s most successful people have chosen a career they naturally enjoy. So ask yourself: what would my passions lead me to do for a living? How can I alter my present job to include some of my passions? If I woke up a year from now and had my dream job, what would it look like? What can I do this week to begin moving me closer towards this perfect career? Fact: when you’re passionate about what you do, you will never again have to drag yourself out of bed in the morning.

But it’s impossible !

The idea of designing your life around what’s really important to you may seem a distant dream, but nothing’s impossible. It may just be rather inconvenient for a while. Ask yourself: what am I willing to do to live my dream? Going back to college to study homeopathy may mean you have to take an evening job, stop buying new clothes for a year and even rent out your spare room, but none of these things are life threatening. What’s far more destructive is staying in a job you hate while dreaming of what life would be like if you’d taken the plunge and retrained as a homeopath.

Life v lifestyle

Why are you doing a job if you’re not enjoying it? For the money of course! For the lifestyle it buys you. So what does this job give you? A shiny new car, an exotic foreign holiday, the latest designer clothes? And what does it cost you? Stress, frustration, exhaustion? Only you can decide if the price is too high.

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