Contemplate Your Life
Rediscover Your Authentic Self
© 2010-2011 Cynthia Francis. All Rights Reserved.
The edge, relating to business or your personal life is the fine line between pushing yourself too much and too little. Its about going as far as you can without undue mental or physical stress, but going far enough to achieve success. This program, Finding Your Personal Edge, will help you find your edge and by doing so, find true success and happiness.
Anyone who has followed an organized training program (yoga, cycling or a fitness boot camp) knows what finding the edge is all about. What does an exercise program have to do with finding your personal edge, well physically it doesn't, but the concept definitely gives you an idea about what finding your edge is all about.
During any physical training we exhaust ourselves, pushing and exerting our mind and body. The more we train, the better the results...right? It’s very easy to fall into a cycle of training too much or to hard and for too long. You may end up over-trained or worse, injured. Once this happens, your results will suffer and improvement will not come until you step away from the edge. Again, it’s all about finding that fine line between too much and too little.
How do you know when you’ve gone too far? How do you know when you haven't gone far enough? Excluding any sign of physical or mental distress, going past your edge or not far enough usually manifests as unwelcome thoughts or behavior. This is certainly true of any exercise program, physical distress is easy to recognize. But what about mental distress? If you are feeling bored, without imagination, anxious or depressed, it’s a clear sign of not meeting your edge.
Every day people struggle because they don't know how to achieve true success without sacrificing their quality of life. Fortunately, there are ways to be successful while maintaining a more thoughtful, planned and authentic life; this can be achieved by enhancing your skills while improving your life. The key is to realize that everyone has an inner and an outer edge. As mentioned above, Your Edge is the place between trying too hard and not trying hard enough, or in other words, your inner and outer edge. Your inner edge is made of your thoughts, dreams, plans and abilities. Your outer edge is the person that you show the world through your words and actions. Your inner and outer edges are closely related, for your thoughts and feelings (inner edge) influence your words and actions (outer edge), and combined, build your life. Everyone has an edge, but it can be difficult to achieve the balance required to find it on your own.
The more you focus on the inner edge, the more it becomes a part of your everyday life. This requires focus on the following:
Clarity - In order to achieve the results you are seeking, you need clarity about what you really want. Clarity comes from contemplative thought. You may be motivated, driven and busy, but still aren't clear about what you want. Your desires will not be fulfilled until you stop moving long enough to figure out what you're really seeking. You can realize this only after you explore your ideas by creating a vision or gaining clarity on your life's goals, desires and plan.
Planning - Developing a plan means that you have gone through the necessary action to prioritize what you want and how to get there. When you follow a plan, you break out of the cycle of simply mantaining your life and begin taking steps toward creating a new life. When you have clarity and a plan, you know your priorities, you can think about them all at once and you find new opportunities for them to work together. You're leading your life.
Intuition - When going after your plan, you have two choices: You can either make things happen or you can let things happen. Making things happen is all about the results. It's proactive and the default method for those who consistently accomplish their goals. In contrast, letting things happen is more intuitive, discerning, trusting and open to possibility. On the inner edge there's space for letting things happen and being able to recognize opportunities as they present themselves to you, so you don't have to work so hard all the time.
Purpose - Too often, we compartmentalize our work and personal life. When you find Your Edge, you become whole, you find and/or develop your purpose. When you're living on purpose, your Authentic Self is present during your personal life as well as in your professional life, they merge as one. Your ideas, dreams and goals apply across the board. You are who you are wherever you are; you are your Authentic Self.
Finding Your Personal Edge will put you on fast track to becoming your Authentic Self. As your Life Coach I will challenge you to go deep enough, but not so much that you’ve gone too far. Together we will explore all possibilities and develop personal strategies to achieve your success.
