Your life is a continuous journey of creating, discovering, choosing, and changing.  Your identity, or your perception or concept of who you believe you are, directs and organizes your beliefs, core values, capabilities, actions and behaviors.  As you move through life it is very easy to lose that sense of your own personal identity.  Add to the mix that we have a to-do list that never ends, responsibilities galore, and an overwhelming sense of guilt when we take time for ourselves and it should come at no surprise that we feel disconnected from our authentic self and hearts’ desires.

What can you do to reconnect with your true self?  Here are a few tips from a personal life coach that will get you started:

1. Self-Awareness

Start paying attention to the way the things you say, do and think make you feel.  If they empower and inspire you, you’re moving the right direction.  If they make you feel bad or create negative mind-chatter, it is time to re-evaluate the direction you’re going in your personal or professional life.  Awareness is the first step to self discovery.  Without the awareness, you miss the potential shift.    

2. Identify Limiting Beliefs

We live our lives by a set of rules that either support us or limit us.  Beliefs like “I have to work hard for money.”, or “I am not good enough to have what I want.” Or “I’m a selfish person if I take time for myself.”  Many of these “rules” were simply handed to us by our parents, society, religion, etc. and are not a true reflection of who we are or what we really want for ourselves.  If any agreement you have made creates anxiety, stress, fear or doubt, it is in direct conflict with your authentic self. 

 3. Eliminate the Negative Self Talk

Our heads are filled with chatter.  However, most of our self talk is negative.  The good news is that this chatter is not you and it is not true.  Negative mind-chatter are simply lies the ego makes up (by using your outdated rules) to keep you stuck in your same familiar box.  Accepting the negative chatter is one of our biggest blocks to knowing your true self. 

 4. Put Yourself First

Throw out your current definition of the word selfish.  Now, redefine selfish to mean “paying attention to and loving self”.  Think about it – how can you find yourself if your ’self’ is never on the agenda? When you take care of yourself first physically, mentally and emotionally, you’ll be able to better take care of others as well.

5. Put Together a Game Plan

Sometimes it feels like the present is just a repetition of the past.  Albert Einstein was quoted stating that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again expecting different results.  I’m sure you’ve heard this before  To break this cycle, it is important to create a new conscious game plan.  Be your own life coach for a moment and ask yourself, “What am I going to do the next time a similar experience happens?”  Unless you’ll start asking these kind of questions, you’ll miss the opportunity to implement a new plan of action.  Unless you develop a new plan of action, it will be easy to predict the future as it will be more of the same.

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