How To Extract Your Waiting Wisdom

You are smarter, more capable and far better off than you think you are, but only when you decide to connect to your deep well of waiting wisdom within. istock_000003366515xsmall

Your greatest wisdom exists deep within because as you age layer upon layer of false assumptions, comparisons, judgments and the opinions of others are piled on top of it. For an exploration of this nature you need the proper excavation tools to dig past all of that outside junk.

Yet your beautiful, powerful mind is so protective of past conclusions that you have to resort to trickery so that your conscious mind can step back and allow your inner wisdom to emerge.

The key to authentic business building is to operate more and more consciously and less and less mechanically.

When we look to others to supply our wisdom we are often in misalignment with our own original potential.  By going deep and extracting your own wisdom you automatically have increased the probability of success.

My greatest service as a life coach, coaching new business owners is selecting the right tools to guide the inner journey so that my clients can find and express their authentic selves.

The right tool will facilitate high performance by raising self-understanding, self-esteem and personal effectiveness. This allows us to access wisdom and other resources that normally remain hidden from our consciousness. Without digging deep this wisdom does not normally show up in our behavior.

One of the most powerful tools I use in this work is sentence stem completion.  I first read about it in Nathaniel Branden’s book The Six Pillars of Self Esteem.  Sentence stem completion is most effective as a tool to facilitate understanding, liberate self-expression and activate self-healing.

Sentence stem completion rests on he premise that all of us have more knowledge than we are normally aware of – more wisdom than we use, more potentials than typically show up in our behavior. Sentence completion is a tool for accessing and activating these “hidden resources.”  When we intensify awareness, we tend to generate a need for action that expresses our changed psychological state.  Nathaniel Branden

Sentence Stem Completion Instructions

1). Begin with an uncompleted sentence stem in the area of your exploration. Here are some possibilities that have served my clients well.

If I really wanted to achieve this goal  …
When I apply 10% more consciousness to my activities …
If I truly wanted to create my own unique product I’d …
My most powerfully productive business decision this quarter would be to …

2). Repeat the stem each time out loud and then jot down the completion. Some feel more comfortable working with a tape recorder and then going back and transcribing. It’s the speed and lack of self-judgment that lowers repressive barriers and allows the wisdom to emerge. This is a rapid-fire exercise — do not sit and stew over answers. Just say the stem and complete the sentence as rapidly as possible. No pauses, the game is to answer quickly one after another. Don’t worry about the validity of what you’re coming up with while you’re doing it. Just complete each sentence and then again.

3). For each sentence stem keep adding completions as fast as possible. Work with the same stems for seven days in a row. No pauses to think in between. Just write. Each stem must be a complete sentence. Stems may be repeated on different days but on any one day, all stems need to be different. Complete at least six endings for each stem, each day.

4). At the end of the week reflect on what you’ve written. Allow yourself to be surprised about what you’ve written.  At the end of seven days look at all of your completions and select the top three you are willing to act on. This wisdom may need further refinement but it will beat the root of your most optimum and effective actions.

Here’s the good news.  The wisdom you seek is seeking you.  Your internal guidance has been trying to get your attention to shine a light on your optimum path.  You willingness to go deep and bring it forth will definitely accelerate the process.

Wisdom serves as widening of perception and somehow allows us to see situations and intentions in a new light.

This new light expands possibilities so we don’t jump to limiting conclusions based on past experience.  Instead we are emboldened to create our very own brave new world.

Comments

  1. Clem Gigliotti Jr says

    I’ve used this technique for years, Tom. And it’s proven as equally powerful and revealing as you describe. It’s the first step use now to evaluate areas of confusion and big decisions…not necessarily as the way to make all decisions, but definitely a tool to help make them.

    Clem Gigliotti Jrs last blog post..Our Grandparents Would Have Understood Social Media

  2. Wow! I really liked reading about the sentence stem completion exercise. That sounds really interesting. Great post!

    Positively Presents last blog post..9 ways to walk in your own shoes

  3. Suzanne @ vAssistant Services says

    My internal guidance sometimes has a tough row to hoe with me. 🙂 But, I just this morning replied to a friend who’d commented that I sure seemed to be making lots of forward progress lately, “Oh, I’m just getting better at listening.”

    That’s been the lesson for me: stop trying so hard to figure it all out yesterday and start listening within. It’s all in there.

    Suzanne @ vAssistant Servicess last blog post..Should You Get a Professional Photo Taken For Your Site?

  4. Chris Edgar | Purpose Power Coaching says

    Thanks Tom — I’ve always found this to be a powerful exercise when it comes to seeing the assumptions I make in any area of my life.

  5. I do believe this will shed some light on my current attempt at creating a niche for my business. I haven’t been able to narrow that down yet through various processes, it’s becoming more muddled instead. I am going to try this today. Thanks for your wisdom and great ideas!

    Casies last blog post..Meet the New Girl in Virtual Assistant Town

  6. J.D. Meier says

    I like your point on false assumptions.

    I’m a fan of testing your assumptions, testing your results, testing your business … etc. It’s more about measuring results over simply thinking … and that’s where the rubber meets the road. I like when I test limits and find new glass ceilings.

  7. I love this line – “Your internal guidance has been trying to get your attention to shine a light on your optimum path.” I might replace optimum with optimal, but that’s semantics.

    We have this inner drive that needs to be listened to. The more we ignore the unhappier we become. I’m a fan of work happiness and developing our inner selves to create our perfect career. It takes a lot of reflection, but I feel like I’m getting closer every single day because of articles like this one

    Karl Staib – Work Has last blog post..Escape From Cubicle Nation – Book Review

  8. If I were needing to work on my self esteem more so than my business, what types of sentence stems could I use?

  9. Clem – I can’t think of a better person to ask for advice than your own higher self. Wise decisions do indeed follow.

    Positively – What is your name please? You’re quite mysterious on your blog. Use this exercise it’s far, far better than just reading about it.

    Casie – It does more than just shed light. It presents multiple options for progress.

    J.D. – Action sure does test our mettle in more ways than one!

    Karl – I had to look them up. It’s not semantics when both optimal and optimum mean the same thing. It’s more like preference, I guess. I’m very enthused that you have your inner ears tuned into your wisdom.

    Suzanne – That’s the great thing about internal wisdom; it just patently waits for us to get our act together. Oh yeah – you are cookin these days!

    Laurie – Try these:
    If I took action more often I’d ….
    If held myself in higher regard …..
    When I apply just 10% awareness to my confidence I ….
    If I always listened to what I know for sure I’d …

    Chris – Thank God for the courage to expose our limited assumptions. We are blessed!

  10. Clare Tyler says

    Tom – This is one of the best things I’ve ever seen you write!! I did sentence completions on two items during my lunch break today, and at the end of them my emotional level was very high. Just prior to that I had been down in the dumps due to my job feeling like jail. It doesn’t feel that way now, even though I’m back at my desk dealing with the same issues. My relationship with those issues is what has changed, and things will continue to get better as I use these exercises for the next week. Thanks!

  11. Clare – Good for you. I’m happy you’ve actually used it. Stay with it. I’ve found that wisdom keeps oozing out slowly and surely once we give it permission to emerge.

  12. Amy Jewell / Cirklagirl says

    Tom,

    I just printed off the questions you suggested and I am going to try it with a recorder. Great idea. I am a bit stumped to come up with my own questions though! I know you said that these are just starters… maybe I should ask for more questions and do the exercise! lol…. that might work. Always better to get out of your own way.

    Amy Jewell / Cirklagirls last blog post..The New Wave of Magazine

  13. Amy – Yep that will work. Just start asking – your wisdom will emerge and meet you half way. let us know what you come up with.

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