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If you aren’t moved by calling towards something greater than yourself, what will cause you to reach deep and draw out the passion and promise of your full potential day after day?
You may have noticed we’ve been pretty quiet of late. While launching our new web site (which admittedly, kept us pretty busy for a bit) we intentionally stepped back from any attempt to compete with all the talking heads talking about what almost everybody’s been totally taken up with: resolutions. Goals. Objectives. Action plans. How to make them . How to keep them.  Frankly, we didn’t have much to add to that conversation, so we just sat it out – at least until the dust settled. But the grand experiment is now over and the results are officially in: enough of us have had enough experience to know first-hand that getting what we set out for, thinking happiness and fulfillment will result, doesn’t guarantee that it will. In fact, we’ve learned that the best laid - and perfectly executed - action plans are no guarantee we’ll come anywhere close. What they will get us is peak performance and great lifestyle (at least, that’s what many hope!). But what about authenticity…? That’s why we don’t coach folks into achievement, or results, for their own sake. Less than 20% of the time does it ever actually result in what everyone truly wants: authentic happiness and sustainable fulfillment (stay tuned for our next post describing how we all became so darned confused about all this in the first place). Advising people how to follow-through on their resolve to loose a few pounds, quit smoking or find love is, very often, cart-before-the-horse kind of thinking when it comes to living your way into a meaningful, fulfilling life. So we just don’t coach it. And trying to talk over the din of talking heads outlining X-step-formulas on how to live an authentic life isn’t what many of us need now. Frankly, we couldn’t justify competing for your attention in the midst of one of the biggest message rushes of the year because it would contribute to the very conditions that make hearing yourself – and your life – so insanely hard in the first place. But we digress… While busy trying to figure out ‘how to’ keep up with the wired-for-sound pace of life, and make happen what we think we need to be happy, our happiness eludes us, and the meaningful stuff of life goes by untended or simply unseen. We become anxious, confused, disoriented, afraid – and locked in lesser contests that, if won, build us a good lifestyle but not a whole lot more. Now, being able to supply your family with a good life in a good home in a good neighborhood - and with the opportunities a good education affords - is a noble endeavor. But most of us can already do that. In fact, most of us are over-doing that, and research has proven that beyond the basics, having more won’t make us happier.  So here’s a radical idea: what if we gave our individual or collective attention and energy to something life altering at the beginning of each New Year, to something that inspires us – and draws out our personal best – instead of more of the same?
Which is, as it turns out, what the people of Ecuador are doing together as they overwhelmingly vote to rewrite their constitution. That’s right: their constitution. There’s lots of work still ahead for them, but as of the stroke of midnight Ecuadorians were clear in their intent together that the rights of the earth - and all species upon her – will be rendered constitutionally protected by them for the first time in human history. They also intend that the traditional economic indexes used to determine a country's health, happiness and prosperity – like the benchmark of GNP used here in North America – will be replaced with measures of true human progress, such as air and water quality, and universality of medical care and all levels of education. As in Bhutan, whose aim for GNH or Gross National Happiness is their revolutionary new benchmark for national success, the people of Ecuador are adjusting the focus of their everyday living onto a collective – and historical - sense of purpose. Sure beats the collective rush to the gym in January, now don’t it? Look: don’t get us wrong: losing weight, exercising, quitting smoking, finding your dream job –dream companion –are all very worthwhile objectives. Take care of yourself, please! But ask yourself, will they really bring to you a deeper sense of true meaning and powerful purpose? If you aren’t moved by calling towards something greater than yourself, what will cause you to reach deep and draw out the passion and promise of your full potential day after day? What will help you bring to life what’s imbedded in the very fabric of your being? Running on the treadmill of life, racing to keep up with the latest in time and contact management gadgetry in hand? If you aren’t moved by calling, you have to ask yourself whether you’re living the resolve of your life’s true purpose, or just the feel-better fashions of the day. What causes you to reach for what you’re reaching for? To want what you want? Do you even know? If your goals and objectives are not grounded in clear cause – in purpose, or what we call your WHY – the resolve or will to persevere can’t help but peter out: they aren’t hooked up to the raw, unstoppable power of passionate propulsion. Nothing can move you the way you need to be moved but you and your life’s purpose. And don’t let anyone tell you differently, no matter how expert they sound. Be cause (and yes, that was on purpose). P.S. if you look closely at the Presidential nomination race, no matter what your party affiliation, what you’ll see right now are the very real stirrings of exactly what we’re talking about here. The difference is most folks don’t know what they’re up to – or why – as they rise up to take part. And they are reliant on someone else to stir it for them. And knowing – and being at cause - makes all the difference in the world: consciousness makes you both partner and participant, cause and effect. ‘Be the change you wish to see in the world,’ ain’t just a pretty phrase. 
SEE OUR VIDEO ON WHY here
Lissa Bergin-Boles & Randy Boles The True Callings Coaches www.TrueCallings.net 519-524-9913  Master class graduates of the Institute of Integrative Coaching at JFK University, husband and wife team Lissa Bergin-Boles and Randy Boles are known as the True Callings Coaches. They specialize in helping life’s movers and shakers successfully find and fulfill their true purpose because absolutely nothing in life returns a bigger all-round ROI. <!--[if !vml]--> <!--[endif]--> They live in ‘The Treehouse’ on the shining shores of south-eastern Lake Huron with their Dalamation, Prince Pongo. To have them speak at your next event, follow this link.
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