How you approach success matters. You can approach it from the ‘Outside In’ or the ‘Inside Out.’ Neither is better but one may yield you a more satisfying experience in the long run.
The ‘Outside In’ approach focuses on the rush to get somewhere. It’s all about the plans, the goals and the to-do lists of your life without much thought given to how you’re being impacted by the way you’re living.
- The unarticulated and sometimes unknown question at the centre of the ‘Outside In’ approach is, ‘How fast can I get what I want?’
The ‘Inside Out’ approach is about turning within. This orientation is about designing your life with a clear intention to be congruent. When your life is congruent, the plans and goals you create are in harmony with your core values and highest aspirations.
- The deep inquiry at the heart of the ‘Inside-out’ approach is ‘Who am I BECOMING in the process of DOING what I do?’
Here are three specific tips for approaching and living your life from the ‘Inside Out’.
- Be Open. Be open to the idea that you have a rich interior life that always wants to guide you to a place of your highest good. Pay attention and listen.
- Be Fearless. Understand that ‘Inside Out’ living is not for wimps. It requires you to tell the truth to yourself constantly and consistently about who you are, how you’re showing up, and the true impact of your presence and action in the world.
- Be Patient. It takes time and hard experience to listen to your life. An ‘Inside Out’ engagement with your life has the greatest capacity to bring you to a place of fulfillment and wholeness as you learn to embrace all of who you are – both your strengths and your limitations.
At the end of the day all you ever have to contribute is who you are.
Summation:
There are two approaches to how you achieve success: from the Outside In or from the Inside Out
Outside In:
You can pursue your goals-plans-timelines with an external focus only on what you want to DO. Many of us approach life and work in this way. However, this approach often overlooks the importance of who you are and how you can deliver what you have to offer in a way that is both authentic and reaffirming how you really want to live your life.
Inside Out:
Or, you can begin the process of moving towards your goals by first focusing on who you BE: looking within to understand who you are, what’s important to you, and what you need in order to have a life that is in harmony with your deepest values and aspirations.
Approaching your life and your goals from the Inside Out requires:
- being patient with the process of discovery and growth
- willingness to be led by your inner guide
- fearless examination of how you’re showing up in the world.
Who you are today and who you are becoming are the greatest gifts you have to contribute. It is from your clarity that your highest impact will flow.
