At New Insights, we’ve been celebrating.
This year marks the 19th anniversary of New Insights Africa, the 15th anniversary of New Insights UK under my stewardship, and 23 years since the New Insights brand was originally founded.
New Insights specialises in training people to become certified life coaches, and life coaches specialise in helping others to live their lives to the full.
So, it seems entirely appropriate to share a few of the ‘insights’ or tips we have accumulated about what it takes to live life to the full.
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These brief insights are offered as food for thought. If they inspire you to want to take action, I strongly recommend you hire a life coach to make living life to the full your reality.
And if they inspire you to want to build a part- or full-time career helping others live their lives to the full, then I invite you to consider joining our amazing certification training programme (you’ll find more details at the bottom of this post).
OK, here are the fifteen insights in no particular order:
1. Do what you love
The purpose of life is to be happy. The easiest way to be happy is to live with purpose. The way to live with purpose is to follow your passion. Make a living out of doing what you love.
2. Focus on giving back
The highest human needs are personal growth and giving back or contributing. Fulfil these needs by building a strong connection between that which you love doing and the welfare of others and the world as a whole.
3. Embrace the magic
Put the magic back into living by acknowledging the mystery of it. Rekindle your childhood curiosity and imagine the existence of an unseen ‘cosmic magic wand’ that will manifest anything you can focus on and visualise with sufficient clarity, persistence and belief.
4. Live and let live
Freedom comes with living life your way. Do whatever you want with your life. Experiment, have fun, learn lessons, grow. Just remember one very important restriction. Never do anything that takes away, or negatively distracts from, the ability of others to live life the way they choose to.
5. Live authentically
It is near impossible to derive genuine fulfilment from life when you spend it pretending to be someone you are not. Make no apologies. Be proud of who you are and commit to live life in a way that does justice to the authentic version of you.
6. Be wary of comparison
Comparison with others is a double-edged sword. It can spur you on to grow, or it can lead to envy and resentment. Resolve to engage solely in comparing with caring. Don’t try to be someone else or be better than someone else. Learn from others so that you may be the best version of you.
7. Let your past guide—not define—you
Consider your past as the unique route you chose to get you to where you are now on your journey through life. Use the experiences and learnings you’ve gathered along that route to inform the next stage of your journey, not define it!
8. Assign meanings that empower you
Situations and events have no meaning other than that which you choose to assign to them. If thinking about a specific event in your life causes you pain or emotional distress, consider assigning a different meaning to it. How did that event serve to make you stronger and wiser, or change your life trajectory for the better?
9. Meet challenges with action
When life throws out challenges, remember the 4As. Respond with Awareness and Action, not Ambivalence or Avoidance. A challenge that is not confronted builds fear and self-doubt and grows in scale in one’s mind. By having the courage to take a small, yet carefully considered action, you will instantly diminish the perceived sting associated with any challenge you face.
10. Embrace diversity
Open your mind to embracing diversity, in all its forms. In the same way you marvel at the diversity presented by Mother Nature, embrace an attitude of ‘respect for perspective’ when it comes to fellow humans. Just as every human being has different fingerprints, we each have a unique outlook on the world, that developed from the unique environment, education and stream of life experiences we were exposed to.
11. Strive for balance
Strive to find your unique natural balance. Harmonious living comes from finding a delicate balance between the paired needs of certainty and variety, and the other paired needs of significance and love and connection. When we bounce between experiencing too much of one and too little of the other, we lose focus on the more spiritual, higher-level needs that bring us fulfilment.
12. Keep a sense of humour
Be serious about life, but try not to take life too seriously. In other words, commit to building a better life in which you grow, develop and give back, while remaining open to seeing the funny side of it. Even the best laid plans of mice and men go awry. In dealing with the unpredictability of life, laughter is often the best medicine!
13. Treat money as a tool
Treat money as a facilitation tool, not as an end in itself. Many of us go through life chasing money, seldom stopping to think clearly about our underlying motive. Put money in perspective. It is a wonderful commodity that can help you in your pursuit to live life to the full. However, life loses meaning when accumulating money becomes the sole purpose of your life.
14. Nurture your inner being
The inner being is your all-knowing connection to the divine, or the cosmic magic wand, if you prefer. Most of us suppress this quiet force within us, preferring to trust the opinions of others or the so-called ‘collective wisdom’. Learn to trust and be guided by your intuition, unpolluted as it is by your ego, your limiting beliefs, your worst fears and your inherited instinct to conform.
15. Put yourself first
To live life to the full, you have to be at your best, both physically and mentally. That requires you to give priority to yourself. This is not meant in a selfish way. It is intended to acknowledge that your ability to give back—to family, friends, and the world at large—is a function of your overall capacity. As the airline safety briefs instruct, be sure to fit your own oxygen mask properly, before reaching out to help others!
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How wonderful it is, as a New Insights Life Coach, to experience living life to the “fullest.” Thank you, Bill, for these deeply insightful observations. Many of my clients have described their coaching journey using these words, “It has opened up a whole new world for me!” I agree wholeheartedly. When we learn how to see and do things differently, we pave the way for becoming the best version of ourselves. When we discover our purpose, we are inspired to go out into the world to spread the news of this wonderful alternative, of which most people are completely unaware. How great it feels to be in the world but not of the world. I feel a deep sense of gratitude towards my coach, Brenda, who gave me such a life-changing and transformative opportunity in 2011. Therein lay the seed for my coaching practice which I so aptly called, “Untapped Potential.”
Thank you sincerely for this contribution, Karen. We live in an era of instant gratification, or should I say desire for instant gratification, which results in many people eschewing the opportunity to invest the time and effort required to experience true personal transformation. For those, like you, who opt to do so, a whole new world of opportunity opens up!
So powerful, thank you Bill.
I’m pleased you found it useful, Chris!