Integrity with Yourself

I constantly meet people in their 30s, maybe even early 40s, who have done everything right—they’ve gone to good schools, earned advanced degrees, worked for top companies, and established a strong financial start—but who feel unfulfilled, and in some cases downright miserable. Perhaps you are reading this or visiting The Forward Group’s Website because you are one of them!

If all your life you’ve done everything you were supposed to do, then why are you so unhappy now? Why do you feel stuck? Why have none of the approaches you’ve taken to get unstuck and find true happiness worked?

And most important: How do you move forward again and find real happiness?

Let’s look at one potential reason that you might feel stuck.

Could it be that you have no integrity with yourself? In other words have you forfeited your hopes and dreams to meet another’s expectations? The life you live is perhaps the life your parents, grandparents, siblings, or a significant other want you to live. Have you either consciously or unconsciously, allowed them to impose their own needs and wants on your life?

They probably meant no harm. In fact, most likely they believed they were looking out for your best interests. But the safe, structured path down which they steered you has led you to frustration and discontent, not the freedom and happiness you want for yourself.

Does this sound familiar to you? Maybe you excelled in music or art in school, but your parents discouraged you from nurturing your creative talents and redirected your effort to subjects they believed were more realistic and practical. Perhaps you considered majoring in music performance, but your parents pressured you to pursue a business degree and lock in a reliable salary.

Now, it’s true that you enjoy a comfortable lifestyle and a healthy income—but at what cost? What would happen if you got back to your roots and began to pursue your core passions? Can you imagine finding the motivation to move forward in the broad space of your unrealized dreams?

I hope you’ll join me for my next post, as we begin to explore the cost of straying from integrity with yourself, and the myriad rewards of getting back on track and moving forward.

Topics: Integrity, Being Stuck, Passion, Freedom, Happiness

Most of us at some point in our life get stuck. If not, keep living, you will.

It’s that place that makes you feel as though life has you in a holding pattern. The best example I can use to explain this is an airplane circling the airport waiting to land but can’t. Moving to the next destination is not possible nor is returning to the city where the flight originated. The funny thing is that you are still moving while in the plane; it gives the illusion of progress but in reality you are going in circles.
 
The interesting thing about this example is like many situations we find ourselves stuck in, we are at the mercy of the control tower. Even if the pilots wanted to land or travel to another airport to land, without the consent of the control tower they are stuck in a holding pattern.
 
In most cases circling is for your own security and safety. The control tower understands what’s going on and gives instructions that will keep an accident from happening. Although, I have built my business on coaching people forward there are times when God, the ultimate control tower, has you circling for a reason.
 
Just this past week one of the presidential planes carrying First Lady Michelle Obama had to abort landing because the flight was too close to a cargo plane on the ground. The control tower sent instructions that saved the world from a major tragedy.
 
Who’s manning your control tower?

Coach Kevin Ward