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Andrew Wallas has spent his career transforming businesses and the people who run them by focusing on 2 core principles: self-sabotage and the power of intention. We sat down with Andrew, the CEO and founder of The School of Business Alchemy to discuss steps we can take to reach our personal and professional success, accomplish our dreams, and bring an end to negative patterns of behavior.
Think about how many times you've told yourself, "I'm never doing that again" only to find yourself repeating that same action—knowing full well it’s a bad decision. Unless people are willing to take a closer look at their lives, actions, reactions, and interactions with others, they will never break the negative habits that keep them in a cycle of killing their own dreams.
Andrew estimates that most people who have dreams and aspirations are actually responsible for their own failure to attain them.
So how do we break that cycle?
Andrew says that the very first step in countering self-sabotaging behavior is to be aware of its existence in the first place. We need to look at how we’re unconsciously, or consciously, undermining what we want.
And not always, but often we need to understand where that undermining or sabotage is coming from. And normally, it’s coming from a place where we had a little dream, and we were heartbroken. Whether it’s about a relationship, or maybe it’s we had a dream of getting grades in school that we didn’t attain.
Without putting in the work to mend the heart after our disappointments in life, we are destined to be stuck in place, unable to move forward for the fear of getting hurt again.
Now that Andrew has made us think about how much "baggage" we're all carrying around, how do we begin to improve? It starts with a willingness to transform, and takes a personal commitment to achieve wellness and stability. One of the first ways to do that is to accept change, and not be afraid of it. Again going back to our pitfalls and harmful behavioral patterns, Andrew warns there is a misconception about change. In so many instances, people think "change" means getting rid of something. It does not.
The fear of change can bring on stress and anxiety. The energy we spend trying to avoid or destroy our fears, only wears us out, and actually makes the fear stronger.
Just like in nature, you can’t get rid of anything, you can only transform it into something else. "If you have water, you can turn it to ice, you can boil it and it goes into steam—but nothing is gone, you just can't see it anymore. So you don't transform anything by getting rid of something.”
Instead, learn to coexist with your fears. The power returns to you when you face it and even embrace it.
Most of us have pondered, "What is my purpose in life?" Andrew believes there is a strong connection between knowing your purpose and living a happier, more fulfilled life.
So how do we discover our purpose and get on track to a more contented life? According to Andrew, the first thing that we’ll need is something so many of us don't exercise ...patience.
Acknowledging our lack of patience is essential to our ability to embrace change and discover our purpose. But we shouldn’t expect it to happen overnight. As Andrew explains, “There's that famous prayer "Lord give me patience, now." You know to really discover our purpose, we need to be willing to spend a little bit of time, a little bit of reflection and say "okay, today is Monday ... I don't have to discover my purpose by Wednesday, or by Friday, or even by next Monday. Starting with the willingness to create a little bit of space around it is the first thing.”
So if we want to discover our purpose, we need to create some space and some reflection time where we can sit with ourselves. And we can reflect on different aspects of our lives—including listening within.
“We have to learn to really listen within, as that’s the best signal. It’s a better teacher than any coach, any therapist, any teacher to really learn to listen to our innate impulses. Because that’s where our dreams are. And that’s where our purpose is.”
Listen to the bonus episode to learn how to make an inner shift with actionable steps to get started, and how to leverage intention to reach your goals.
Resources:
Connect with Andrew on LinkedIn and learn more on www.andrewwallas.org
Get Andrew’s new book “Intention: How To Tap Into the Most Underrated Power in the Universe”