What if you could have "Gary Vee" level self-awareness in just 2 days?

Sounds impossible? Not really. Not with Authentic Lives.

What is Authentic Lives?

It's a workshop introduced to me by @karinzdailygrind.

What made me want to do it?

It all began with a question I asked Karin -

"What drives you?"

You see, I was learning so much stuff from books and courses but I just wasn't taking action.

She replied "Once you find your purpose, you will always automatically take action."

Intrigued by all this, I asked her how can I find my purpose and viola - I was introduced to Authentic Lives Workshop.

How was the workshop?

The workshop is held on two full Saturdays.

In one word, I would describe the workshop as "transformational".

After going through a lot of personal development, I've found the best form of personal growth is through reflective exercises. You know those exercises in those books you've been ignoring? Yeah, those.

They give you the greatest ROI on your personal growth because it helps you get clear what you are actually driven by.

"A lot of people think they aren't taking action due to lack of motivation when its really a lack of clarity." - James Clear

That's why knowing your purpose/why is a big game changer.

3 big takeaways

1. The Orphan Identity

This resonated with me. I would say most people driven for success are guilty of this in some way shape or form.

A person with an orphan identity is one who sees herself as practically alone.

She is born alone and she will die alone. No one is there to help her so only she can fight for what's her's.

She doesn't think she can be loved nor will she ever be.

In a nutshell, those with an orphan identity feel that they are alone.

How do we overcome this?

I would say it's best to start viewing the world as a friendly place than a hostile one.
And to adopt an abundance mindset rather than a poverty mindset.

Which leads me to...

2. Head VS Heart

Yeah, yeah you probably heard of the abundance mentality and that there's an ocean of opportunity out there.

You also probably heard that there's plenty of fish in the sea when you went through a breakup.

It's up in there (your head), but is it down there (in your heart)?

It's very simple to say that you know something, but do you genuinely believe it?

Do you genuinely believe there's plenty of money to go around and that you are optimistic about your future?

From my experience, the best way to get from your head to your heart:

• Have results that how you are progressing towards that reality

A friend told me that conditioning helps, but I would say having tangible results no matter how small makes the conditioning 10X more effective.

In the case of the abundance mindset, start conditioning yourself by watching billionaires speak. When you do that, you realize that $10,000 a month is little compared to what they are going after.

Just remember it's all a matter of perspective. If you believe you deserve riches, you will accept it more full down the road.

To get results, you have to act towards your goals. Watching videos will shift your perspective but getting results will solidify your beliefs that you actually can do this.

For example, when I started my career, I didn't have a clue on how to build a blog.

According to a course I enrolled in, one of the best ways to build a blog is to guest post.

In my day job, I did that almost weekly. I knew I could do it - the results were there.

This helped shift the thinking of "I can do it" from my head down to my heart.

3. Finding Your Fears and Terminating Them (Almost)

Perhaps what holds people back the most outside of lack of clarity are their fears.

After going through my exercises, I found two that I believe most young and ambitious folks share:

1) Fear of other people's opinions

This is a big one. This encompasses fear of failure and the like.

We are so afraid of being found out that we are not as good as we think we are. We fear letting other people down.

We are afraid that if we do the things we love and realize we are bad at it, that we are worthless.

"What if I don't really have a passion? What if I suck at my passion, what now?"

All these things come rushing.

Solution?

The closest idea I can get to is self-love.

Read the book Love Yourself Like Your Life Depends on It by Kamal Ravikant.

It is important to know that at the end of the day, if you feel that no one loves you for your faults and failures, at least you have yourself to support you.

I would say it's similar to those with strong faiths, they weather the social storms easier because they know God is with them.

2) Fear of neglecting loved ones due to working too much

Ahhh, the question of work-life balance for 20 somethings comes up.

Those of us who have learned a lot but fear acting on that knowledge probably suffer from this.

I ask this question all the time to those elder than me and I've gotten different answers.

Some say that you shouldn't care too much about work-life balance when you are young, you don't have any real commitments and if you work hard now, you will reap the rewards later in your 30s.

Another friend of mine who had his adult life ruined by lack of work-life balance told me to care more about it. (Oddly enough, he said the only thing he would change was to allocate just an hour more each day to spend with family.)

I listened closely and found my own answer in that workshop.

Place your loved ones first.

Here's how it works - ever heard of the #1 mistake when it comes to personal finance?

It goes - People save what's left after they spend. (INCOME - EXPENSES = SAVINGS)

So the better way is - People spend what's left after they save. (INCOME - SAVINGS = EXPENSES)

Here's what you can do:

Take out your weekly calendar and schedule time for your loved ones.

Once you are satisfied with the allotted time, spend the rest of the time working and building your future.

Because you have allotted the time for your loved ones (and chances are you have something planned), you will have a lot less guilt when you do work hard because your time with them is taken cared of.

My purpose

At the end of it all, the purpose I found for myself is:

Transforming Lives.

That's a big word, but it makes sense. I get most of my fulfillment from helping people through my writing and other creative mediums in the future.

The best part

And the best part of the workshop is that it's FREE.

Find out more details at https://www.facebook.com/authenticlivesworkshop/.

Thanks for reading :)

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Image sources: One, Two, Three, Four, Five, Six.