Soulpower or willpower?

Linked in article November 9, 2018

We have often reached quite some goals in life by motivating ourselves through will power: “Come on, get yourself together, you can do this!”, “Power up” and many similar phrases.

The down side of this is that in my coaching practice I see people that have become (almost) burnt out by powering up because they think they ‘have to’ and they don’t know any other way.

Did you ever have the experience when you could not stop yourself doing something and it gave you energy instead of using it, when time did not matter? I call this doing something from ‘soul power’ instead of ‘will power’.

Finding your ‘soul power’ will give you wings: it will motivate you in a way that is exhilarating instead of exhausting, energy giving instead of energy costing, fun instead of a duty.

This means motivating yourself from within: from your inner drivers, like: values, life purpose and vision.

Your values are ‘one’s judgment of what is important in life’ (Oxford dictionary) and also ‘the energetic drivers of our aspirations and intentions’ (Richard Barrett). When you live in congruence with your core values your heart sings and it feels ‘right’.

Your life purpose is with you from the moment you are born. As a child you often follow it unconsciously. You are onto your life purpose when you are in your brightest energy, coming from your strenghts, you don’t think too much about it and it feels natural.

Your vision is a picture you have of a longing for your world. The stronger and clearer your vision, the more it will fuel your soul power.

When you motivate yourself through soul power it means you lead a fulfilling life and you exude joy out into the world. And you will find that ‘fueling yourself through soul power’ is much more sustainable, than through will power. My clients definitely experience that. So keep looking for those moments in life when it does feel easy and fulfilling: reflection on those moments might give you some answers, how to! Or..hire a coach to support you there..:-)

Do you choose to work fueled by soul power or by will power? I would love to hear your comments and/or ideas!