Last week I began sharing about the path to our potential (Link). Through this writing, I’m going to say ‘potential’, a lot. Because, most of us grossly underestimate our own.

Many of us can feel it deep inside of us, yearning for it to be the energy that guides our lives. Living from this energy, moves us into feelings of success, fulfillment, and zest. It has been my journey to move everything out of the way standing between me and this place within me.

I’ve been devoted to this path from the moment I pulled that trigger in 2004. Because something awoke within me. It was an insatiable commitment to live the fullness of what I experienced as my potential. I could feel the energy of this potential in every cell of my body. This intention has been guiding me and shaping my life for the past 18 years. I’ve lost my way many times, and always find my way back.

I’ve heard it calling me throughout the years. Guiding me. Trying to help me in each moment, when I could hear it. Over time, when it seemed I had lost access to that source within myself, I experienced it in many ways. The predominate message when I lost access is the feeling that there has to be more to this life.

I’m reminded of one example where it became clear that life and my potential was calling me elsewhere. It was calling me into evolution. I was in need of finding the next part of my life’s track.

In 2018, I spent a month backpacking the Philippines. A trip that happened because there was that ever present sense that something was off. Something was amiss in my life. In that sense that there had to be something more, I made the decision to do something that felt life changing. And bold.

I put five countries in a hat, and drew one. At the time, I was leading a team of 80 people, during a large RFP process, that I was leading. I knew that a month off was a bold move, that could hurt my reputation with the company.

Though, I couldn’t let the call to go, go.

I booked my flight and trip before ever speaking with the VP I reported into. I created Matt’s off the grid plan for the team, operation, and clients.  Then I told my manager what I was doing, and articulated how things would run while I was gone. A bold move for me at the time. As it was a statement of fact, rather than asking.

A few short weeks later, I began my journey of a 35 hour trip across the world. Within this I was holding questions of:

What’s preventing me from being happy with the life I have?

What exactly am I seeking?

What’s next from here?

This trip changed everything and is evident in my life today.

It was during this trip that I became aware of how little I knew of the world, and a craving to experience it.

It opened me up to new levels of courage to own the truth. My corporate career was stagnating my potential. For the better part of a decade, I grew and grew along with a start up. Beginning as an individual contributor, leaving as a Director leading a national team.

It was a gift in and to my life, until it wasn’t. My corporate career was at its end for me. A truth that was terrifying and empowering to admit. 

This time with myself traveling this new world opened me to see what was missing and what was next. This led to my corporate and US departure. It reshaped how I serve my clients, and the guiding principles of my life.

Why am I telling you this story?

Along the way, I’ve found it helpful when various people shared their personal experiences, and ways to connect it to what is happening for me.

Right now you may find yourself walking with a desire to live more fully into the potential you know is within you. You may be walking with a longing to know the answers to the sense that there is more to your life.

Learning to listen to the openings and messages in our lives, is a journey. A journey that supports actualizing our potential, when we bring intention to doing so. Within the journey is inherent growing satisfaction in each area of our life. They are inextricably linked.

Within the golden thread of learning to listen, we find a compass that offers direction at any moment. My experience leading up to, during, and after the Philippines was fueled by two major things. Intention and Willingness.

Intention serving as a guide. Willingness being the activator. I had set clear intentions for this trip. By having that clarity, it opened the door for me to see what I needed. When I am connected to an intention through the part of me I know as my source of potential — nothing stops me.

As you walk with your questions and sense of what may be off — I offer:

1. Read this story of my experience as if it was your own. What connections emerge that support where you are right now?

2. This offers the first step to support you in building the plane to actualize the life you know inside of you wants to be created

With #2 in mind, spend some time reflecting on and creating core intentions for this phase of your life. You can use these questions to guide you.

What are the core 1-2 intentions guiding my life right now?

And, what is the significance and meaning bound to them?

When we are in search of deeper meaning, connection, and satisfaction in our lives, this is the place to start. Your intentions, when clear, will open the door for you to see what is in your way of them becoming a reality. A feeling of simplicity emerges when we bring the busy-ness and noise down to a couple of lines, wrapped in their meaning.

From this, with clear and aligned intentions, we know the thread that pulls us forward. From here, you can dial in micro intentions to support the macro. Have some fun with this, best you can. It can become a joyous occasion and symbol of honoring the gift of living.

Reach out if you would like some help with this. I’m happy to offer some time to support you getting this started.

Be well,

Matt