Have you ever noticed when a big moment is coming up, you gain an extra blast of energy, focus, and dedication?
A job interview, first date, big presentation, vacation planning, special night out, or networking with someone you admire are all examples of things that push us into that next level of flow.
I have no doubt you’ve felt it before. But why do these moments make us feel this way?
Interestingly, if we zoom out, we can see that it’s not so much what we’re doing that brings out this extra energy in us. It’s about how meaningful it is to us at the time. When we perceive an opportunity or goal as valuable, our mindset shifts, and we unlock our highest potential.
We always have a hidden resource of energy and force in us. The key is figuring out how to unlock it so we can use it to our advantage when we want.
For example, imagine you’re feeling down, exhausted, and ready to take the longest nap of your life. Then, you see the lottery ticket you bought was a winner, and you won ten million dollars. Your exhaustion would suddenly vanish, and you’d be doing a money dance and jumping up and down in your house.
Now, where did that energy come from? It was unlocked because you had a surprise encounter with something that was unbelievably meaningful to you.
This example shows how our energy can unlock when something happens to us. But to take charge of our inner force, we want to figure out how to operate at our highest level in an active way–whenever we choose to turn it up.
We can do this by learning to respect our opponents.
I don’t mean opponent as a villain you’re up against or someone you’re in conflict with. When I say opponent, I’m talking about the barrier holding you back from taking your life where you want it to go–a force that is opposing your intended outcomes.
Instead of being casual with what you’re working toward in your life, treat every encounter with your goal like it’s the big one.
Doing this will unlock your hidden energy and shift your mindset so you will treat your goal with the respect it deserves. Intentionally shifting your mindset this way will help you elevate your focus, flow, and grit, allowing you to bring your highest-performing self to what matters to you.
For example, say you enjoy writing and saw that Substack was offering an opportunity to have a short piece of yours featured in a newsletter they’re sending out to a huge number of readers. The meaningfulness of that opportunity would inspire you to be consistent, put all of yourself into your writing, and try to exceed your own expectations so that you’ll be picked for the feature.
You would respect your opponent (your writing submission), shift your mindset, and raise your game to your highest level so you can bring your best. If you picture this scenario in your mind, you can imagine how you’d feel increasing your focus and flow to meet your goal.
The question is: what would happen if you approached all the goals in your life with that same level of dedication and energy?
What if you were present with your partner like every date night was your wedding night?
What if you treated your exercise routine like you were always two weeks away from a beach vacation?
What if you poured yourself into your passion like you were always hoping to be picked for a feature?
What if you treated your morning meditation practice like you were always about to have a stressful day?
What if you gave yourself love and respect every day, like when you hit a low point in life and decided you’d had enough?
What if you respected your opponent in every aspect of your life?
You would unlock the highest potential that lives inside of you. The hidden force waiting for you to shift your mindset so you can see that every moment of every day is truly the most meaningful moment of your life.
Was this post useful to you? Get an extra exclusive newsletter every week by upgrading to the paid version of Clarity with Cory.
Elsewhere:
An interesting read! I've found that sometimes our biggest opponent is our own reluctance to try - sometimes we're so scared of failure we rationalize that the event/thing/opportunity simply isn't that great
Hmmm, this was an interesting read, I’m curious to know how sustainable this is to operate like this all the time, at our highest potential? Or is it just for shifting our mind during transitions in life?