Finding Your Cape
This is the first post out of seven in the Finding Your Cape series. This is the final tool in the introspection tool kit.
Enjoy.
What is it?
Finding your cape is about taking all your personal insights discovered through the application of the previous tools and translating these in to a refreshed blueprint for your authentic self.
A blueprint that includes using your superpower to live life on purpose.
In the introspection toolkit I have shared the different insights that I have used to discover more about myself and to shape new perceptions of the world around me; a world that I am part of.
Once you find your cape you can choose to put it on and so embody an authentic version of yourself.
Every super hero has a purpose, and now it is time to find yours.
I have written this tool from my own perception, which in turn is formed from my perspective.
It is my hope that creating awareness of this perspective enables other humans to broaden their view of reality. The intention is that by integrating these insights into your perception, your reality will allow the universe to make manifest your super power.
My perception giving insight to a new shared perspective where we can all evolve in harmony.
Prioritising increasing vitality of the whole.
How does it work?
The principles behind discovering your superpower are simple, but not simplistic. That means while they are easy to understand, as you begin to iterate though your understanding, you will discover great depth to each area of this model.
The model at a high-level is composed of these elements:
- Principles – Your rules to live life by
- Values – Behaviours in alignment with your principles that you think move you towards embodying your authentic self
- Behaviour – Engaging in the present moment
- Superpower – Action that feels like an extension of you
- Purpose – The focus for your superpower and the director of your action
Let me summarise this:
Your principles underpin your values, and your values drive your behaviour. Your superpower is the behaviour that comes naturally to you and that you enjoy doing. Your purpose is to discover your super power and through action use it to the best of your ability to effect positive change in the world around you.
In the diagram above I have placed purpose at the centre as once discovered, it is the single thing that everything else in your life will revolve around. Discovering your purpose can happen as a result of deep introspection, and once discovered you will know because you feel it through every fibre of your body.
Who Are You?
Working out who you are is a life’s work. Your evolving definition of who you are will include knowing your super power and purpose, that is why I wanted to start this tool here.
I would recommend circling back though this exercise as you progress through this tool and then planning some time to reflect on this once a year, every year, for the rest of your life.
The more you practice this the more clarity you will have, and over time you will unlock the ability to observe subtle changes in your psyche and as such ability to live as an authentic version of yourself.
Introducing You
If you were to write out an identity badge for yourself, what would you put on it?
Your name? Your age? Your job title? Would it include a picture? Your relationship status? Your moral values? The brand of car you drive?
What is it about you, that makes you, you? How do you define yourself to other people? Or, more importantly, how do you define yourself to yourself?
Wood for the Trees
I put it to you that the essence of you, lies within you. Not outside of you.
That means that you are nothing more than your thoughts, feelings and actions. The energy that comprises your body, mind and as such internal world, and the energy that you project out in to the world.
You are not your car, your job, your house, your qualifications, or any of the clothes you choose to wear.
Yes, some of these things may reflect the personality that you want to project in to the world, but they are not you and any attempt to define yourself by these things would be unauthentic.
Another perspective
Let’s think about that identity badge again…
Ponder for a moment what you would want someone else to describe if they peered deep in to your eyes. What energy would that person feel, how would they describe you?
Think of words that describe what actions you take and how you take them. You are creating a description of something in motion, not something static.
Maybe try and think about this while you peer in to your own eyes in a mirror….
Can you see who you really are?
Honestly… authentically… with no mask or façade?
What is next?
In the next post, we will look at how our principles underpin who we are…
Enjoy, for now.