:: Where is your path leading? - by Damien Senn


Volume 10  | 1170 subscribers  | 89 different countries | 18 October 2005

Welcome to the 98 people who subscribed to 'Design Your Life' over the past month!

Contents

Part 1 - Welcome!
Part 2 - Products / Special Offers
Part 3 - Interesting People!
Part 4 - Inspirational Quote of the Month
Part 5 - Feature Article 
Part 6 - About the 'Design your Life' Newsletter

Part 1 - Welcome!

I am always deeply touched whenever I receive an email from a reader saying how an idea that I have shared in my newsletter has helped them to improve their life in some way.

Each time I receive feedback on what I write, there's a part of me that just wished I could share the thoughts with all of my other readers so that they could benefit from the wisdom and experience shared too!

Over the past month I have been searching for ways to make this happen and I am happy to say, that through the wonders of internet technology this is now a reality.

At the end of each feature article and interview there will now be a link that will enable you to post a comment on what you have just read. It will also give you the ability to read what others have written.

Not only does this give you the chance to give me invaluable feedback, it also provides you with the opportunity to reach out and connect with my other readers.

So if you read something that strikes a chord, it would be great if you could take a moment to share your thoughts by posting a comment!

Take a chance 2day!

Damien Senn

Creating Compelling Futures
Senn-Sational Limited
Ph: +44 (0)793 906 4338
Email: support@senn-sational.com

Part 2 - Products / Special Offers

Senn-Sational Coaching

The theme of this month's newsletter is finding a path in life that helps you to express who you truly are?

Coaching in this area can help you to...

	Celebrate your natural talents and abilities.
	Undo workplace conditioning.
	Help you to find ways to fully express who you are.
	Re-connect with your intuition and passion.
	Find a career that is right for.
	Inspire you to be all you can be.

Book Your Complimentary Coaching Session Now!

Free NLP Workshop in London

Top Neuro-Linguistic Programming Expert, Dr Topher Morrison is running a workshop on Thursday the 27th of October, at the Strand Palace Hotel in London (I have personally attended this workshop and found it to be a valuable experience).

Topher has made a very limited number of complementary spaces available to my 'Design Your Life' subscribers for this training session (valued at £147).

To secure your ticket click the following link and enter the following code 'DS600'

Book Your Complimentary NLP Workshop TIcket

Part 3 - Interesting People.

Nick Williams provided the last piece of inspiration I needed to launch Senn-Sational Limited. Reading his book 'The Work We Were Born To Do' gave me the courage and clarity to finally leave my very comfortable but deeply unsatisfying corporate job. And I have to say that my life has been an extraordinary adventure ever since.

It's a real honour and privilege for me to be able to feature him in the 'Design Your Life Newsletter' read more

Part 4 - Inspirational Quote of the Month

"There is no easy formula for determining right and wrong livelihood, but it is essential to keep the question alive. To return the sense of dignity and honor to manhood, we have to stop pretending that we can make a living at something that is trivial or destructive and still have sense of legitimate self-worth. A society in which vocation and job are separated for most people gradually creates an economy that is often devoid of spirit, one that frequently fills our pocketbooks at the cost of emptying our souls."

Sam Keen - Author

Part 5 - Featured Article - Where is your path leading?

Have you ever stopped to think about where your life’s path is leading?

Is it leading you on a journey of ever increasing aliveness and self expression or is taking you to a place of conformity, mediocrity and discomfort?

My Reality Check

A year and a half ago I had to accept the reality that my life’s path wasn’t heading in the direction that I wanted it to.

On the outside, I had no doubt that I projected an image of success. I had pushed my way up the corporate ladder at quite a rapid rate given my age. I was obscenely well paid, wore tailor made suits and holidayed in exotic locations.

But on the inside, I felt anything but successful. Each day that I dragged myself into office felt as if I was selling another piece of my soul.

For 60-70 hours per week, I performed work that I found deeply dissatisfying in environments that I was completely unsuited to. Now believe me when I say that this wasn’t some kind of passing phase either. In my 8-9 working years since graduating from business school, I had managed to secure consulting contracts with some of the most prestigious corporations in the world. Funnily enough, I had similar work experiences in almost all of them.

To add insult to injury, there always seemed to be at least one person in authority that I would mysteriously come into conflict with in each workplace. They appeared to go out of their way to make my working life extremely awkward and uncomfortable.

Early on in my career, I used to fully engage in the drama of being victimised by these evil tyrants! But over time however, I came to the realisation that these people were actually not my enemies, but my teachers. By letting me know that I didn’t fit into their model of the world (and I must admit they did have a solid argument!), they were unknowingly pushing me forward to follow my innermost passion for doing bigger things in the world.

So What Was Going Wrong?

Over the span of my corporate career I had plenty of time to think about what was going wrong. On many different levels it seemed as if I was following all the rules correctly. I got good grades, went to a very well respected university and had a CV that most aspiring corporate climbers would kill for. So why then wasn’t I experiencing a deep sense of happiness and fulfilment portrayed in the photos of all the corporate recruitment brochures? Why did I feel so empty?

After years of considered thought, I discovered that the reason why I was so unhappy with my professional life was the fact that I was following society’s preconditioned path of success and not my own. I was trying hard to fit into the corporate world by being someone else.

Deep down, the only person I really wanted to be, was me.

I Visualised My Life Not Changing.

The thing that really helped me to make the changes that I needed to make was to visualise how unbearable the rest of my life would be if I didn’t find the courage to change. I visualised what it would be like to do the same uninspired job, in the same uninspired work place, with the same uninspired work colleagues, for the next 35 years of my life. It wasn’t a pretty picture let me tell you!

The great thing about following this process was that it created a scenario in my mind that was so painful that it propelled me to do whatever it took to make the necessary changes.

So how do you know if you’re on the wrong path?

As a society we are conditioned to look to external sources for guidance on what we should be doing with our lives. We are conditioned into mistrusting our own intuition. But when it really comes down to it, the best and most effective way to find out whether or not you are on the wrong path is to look deeply inside yourself.

Taking this kind of approach will take a lot of courage, particularly if you have spent any length of time masquerading as someone else as I had done. Not only that, the answers that you find may not be exactly what you want to hear either. But stick with it. It will be worth it.

Keep pushing yourself to greater and greater levels of self honesty. Let your actions be directed by your new level of self awareness. And most importantly, surround yourself with people that encourage, motivate and inspire you to be all you possibly can be.

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