One of my favorite pieces of writing is Thomas Troward’s essay on Completeness.

It’s a powerful piece; one that I’ve been thinking about a lot recently – so I’ve decided to share a few ideas with you about completeness in this email.

To start off, when we think about personal growth, something I believe (as does Troward that we often neglect is the contemplation of how complete we truly are.

Why is this important? Well, when we don’t understand our completeness and our oneness with God, we consider ourselves incomplete; and in that, we doubt ourselves and our ability to bring forward our dreams into reality.

And it gets in the way of us ever being, doing, and having all that we desire.

Think about it…

When we have an idea to do something or to bring something forward, usually the first thing that happens is this: we come up with excuses for why we can’t do something – excuses that tell us we're incomplete.

I like to use the Biblical story of Moses as an example.

Moses is empowered with a mission from God to lead the Israelites out of slavery in Egypt and into the promised land.

He has been chosen and assigned by God to bring this mission forward – yet, the first thing Moses does is question his abilities.

After God calls Moses, immediately, Moses makes excuses.

He brings up the fact that he isn’t capable; that he has a stutter; that he’s not confident in his speaking abilities, and that he wouldn’t be able to convince the king of Egypt to let his people go.

Essentially, he tells God, “You’ve got the wrong guy,”

Not only does Moses question his abilities, but he regards his brother, Aaron, as much more capable. He plays the comparison game.

Have you ever felt like that?

Like you had an opportunity right in front of you; perhaps one that would help you grow and was in alignment with your dream, but you were too scared to act on it? Or maybe an opportunity opened up that you’ve been dreaming of for years…. But as soon as the door opens and you’re given the chance to take it, you don’t…

Something stops you…

The first thing you do is question your completeness.

You believe you aren’t ready, you tell yourself it just isn’t the right time, and you decide not to do what deep down you know you want to do.

Or maybe you play the comparison game. You think of all the other people who would be better equipped than you at taking that opportunity.

Look, I know what that’s like playing the comparison game. I’ve done it in the past, and I have to stop myself from doing it to this day.

But here's what I've learned: you comparing yourself to others or making excuses like "it's not the right time," usually means one thing: you don’t understand your completeness of your oneness with God.

But the truth is, you aren’t incomplete. You're already complete as you are.

Troward says, “A point on which students of mental science often fail to lay sufficient stress is the completeness of man – not a completeness to be attained hereafter, but here and now.”

Here’s the truth about what Troward is saying: this is not about some completeness that happens later, but here and now.

God didn’t create you to become complete at the time of your death. He created you with a oneness with him; a connection that isn’t meant to be severed.

All of us have a purpose to become aware and to live from an awareness of our oneness with God.

Troward says, “We have been so accustomed to have the imperfection of man drummed into us that at first the idea of his completeness altogether staggers us.”

We hear this in books, in conversation, in ideas that have been taught to us by influential figures from a young age…

But to truly operate at the highest level, we must become aware of our completeness and our oneness with God.

I hope that leaves you with something to ponder and to remember as you go about your week - that you are complete.

I’ll be diving deeper into this topic in some emails in the coming weeks. For now, I hope you’ll become aware of the power of contemplating your oneness with God.

I look forward to diving deeper into this topic with you soon.

Did you know that the average adult can only identify 3 to 4 basic emotions when describing what they’re feeling?

This puts a serious cap on their level of emotional intelligence.

But the fact remains, when you develop your emotional intelligence, or when you help someone else increase their emotional intelligence, it literally has a ripple effect on the following areas of our lives:

…Our ability to work with others…  our ability to become aware of our goals…  our ability to make decisions that aren’t just emotionally driven… our ability to thrive in personal relationships, and so much more!

For one example, just think about it like this. When you increase your emotional intelligence, it enhances your personal relationships because you have a greater level of empathy and understanding for others…

And we all know how valuable that can be when it comes to having serious conversations or confronting conflict.

Simply put, when we don’t take the time to try to understand where the other person is coming from, that conversation usually doesn’t end well.

But when we take the time to develop our emotional intelligence, it helps our relationships because it not only allows you to understand yourself at a much deeper level, it allows you to understand others at a much deeper level.

Ever since I’ve started investing in the growth of my emotional intelligence, I’ve become more aware of what drives me and motivates me, and it’s given me a roadmap on how to live in congruence with my personal values.

You could say it helps you understand yourself, similar to personality assessments.

Now, what if we were to take the power of developing EQ and combine it with the DISC personality assessment – an assessment that has been used professionally to better understand human behavior, work styles, and communication?

Lucky for us, Regina Bryan, our resident expert on DISC & EQ, has done just that and is taking us on a journey through understanding the power of integrating EQ (emotional intelligence) with DISC!

You can register for her call here.

It’s happening on Wednesday, July 13th (that’s TODAY, by the way), at 6:30pm (ET)!

Get ready to be enlightened on what happens when we combine these two powerful assessments –  as well as how you can add this valuable resource to your teaching toolkit in masterminds and coaching!

Hope you can tune in for Regina’s call.

You’ll be glad you did.

Once again, you can register here.

P.S. This is a one-time call. The recording will not be made available to the general public, so if you're even remotely interested in this topic, I'd recommend you be sure to get on the call TONIGHT! 

Values and intentions.

They’re two incredibly important pieces of who we are, wouldn’t you say?

Not only do they tell us a great deal about who we are as individuals; for those of you who are fascinated with or have studied human behavior, you know that values and intentions play a pivotal role in guiding our behavior – from how we plan our week, to how we make decisions, to everything in between.

Values are defined as, “a person's principles or standards of behavior; one's judgment of what is important in life.”

And intentions can be defined as, “an aim or plan.”

Have you ever felt like you’re wandering aimlessly through life, wondering why your behavior is off? Why the simplest of tasks seem so hard to get done?

If you’re feeling like this (or have felt like this), chances are, you haven't had an aim or a plan. Nor a clear understanding of your values.

Think about how closely related the two are and how essential understanding each of them is to understanding our behavior styles as a whole.

I can remember back when I became a student in personal and professional growth, and realizing the reason I had been stuck for so many years was simply because I didn’t have a full understanding of who I was and what was driving me forward.

In other words, I didn’t have an understanding of my values and intentions nor the emotional intelligence to understand the core of who I was…

You see, understanding human behavior is incomplete when we don't include the deeper components of who we are, like our values and intentions. And to truly understand that side of ourselves, we need to hone in on our emotional intelligence (EQ).

For those of you who are familiar with the DISC behavior assessment, have you ever wanted to take it a step further?

…To not only understand your behavioral style at a deeper level, but to also bridge the gap between values, intentions, and behavior? To understand your emotional side and how it contributes to your overall DISC style?

Lucky for us, we have an EQ expert who also happens to be a DISC behavior consultant.

And this Saturday, July 9th at 11am (ET), she’s enlightening us on the power of combining EQ with DISC to take it a step further and gain a better understanding of not only your behavior – but what influences it.

I hope you can tune in on Facebook LIVE, right here.
>> www.facebook.com/empoweredlivingcommunity

This could be the difference maker for you.