Charting Your Self Persuasion Territory

“Don’t ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive, and go do it. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive.” Howard Thurman

Hi Persuader,

It is my belief that life is about learning lessons. Early in life we were taught lessons by adults and siblings who might have passed on incorrect information to us and maybe we’ve spent a long time sorting out for ourselves what is right and what is wrong, what is correct and what is incorrect, what works for us and what doesn’t.

If you frame these life lessons as maps, you will see that these maps don’t always lead us in the right direction because they are inaccurate; if the map doesn’t agree with the reality, then the map is most certainly wrong. So many people get caught up in conflicts because they never realize that the pillars of their education, the pillars of their faith, and the pillars of their social orientation, might not have been laid out accurately for them.

Overcoming this and recalibrating is what persuasion is all about. Self persuasion, persuading loved ones, persuading our prospects and clients — this is charting new territory and creating a new guide based on what is appropriate and true for where we are now and where we dream of going.

Learning how to persuade ourselves allows us the ability to explore this new territory. When we begin the process of self exploration and self knowledge, we become the cartographers of our lives. This can be as messy or as elegant as you want it to be, it can be a struggle or you can transform with ease. Many people operate under the assumption that change and growth are ‘difficult’ like child labor. I choose to operate under the assumption that change flows through me and struggle only comes in when I resist.

When I was a young man my father offered to train me to take over for him in his very lucrative business in convalescent homes. My future was laid out before me with all the money I could ever need. Of course, I had to work my way up from dishwasher through the ranks, but if I stuck with it, I would one day be the owner of this in no time.

It was a crossroad. Do I work my way up the ladder to a guaranteed spot at the top in a business that was not in my heart? Or do I go it alone in the world and create something from nothing for myself?

Obviously, I chose the latter. And it was a struggle because at that point I hadn’t yet realized the key to living life with elegance and ease and still had old, outmoded information that I needed to shed.

Are you alive? If not, what do you need to come alive?

Until Next Time,

Kenrick E. Cleveland