What drives you?

In the past, what drove me were ideas of achievement, performance, and external appearances. Basically, opportunities for external validation – I rarely regarded what I thought about myself and instead depended on what others thought about me. 

So it’s not surprising when I found out in therapy that one of the reasons why this was true was because I had an underlying thought pattern: “I’m not good enough.” 

So of course I didn’t rely on my thoughts about myself because they were always some form of, “I’m not good enough” and “I need to prove that I’m good enough.” Hence, the need for external validation from others. 

How we think about ourselves and our lives contributes to how we take care of ourselves (or don’t take care of ourselves), what we believe is possible for ourselves, and how we show up for our lives. 

We have sentences in our minds that run our life. Usually without our awareness of them.

These are called Power Sentences.

They’re powerful because they affect the results we create in our lives, usually by providing more evidence that the thought (Power Sentence) is “true.” 

When we’ve practiced thinking a thought over and over, it becomes a belief. Beliefs “feel true” even though they’re just thoughts that we’ve thought over and over.

And if our thoughts/beliefs create the results we get in our life, let’s start to become aware of these Power Sentences. 

Some examples of unintentional and unconscious Power Sentences are:

• “I’m not good enough.” 
• “I can never get it right.”
• “I don’t deserve to have what I want.”
• “It’s always so hard for me.”
• “Things don’t work out for me.”

What might these types of thoughts prove true in our lives? 

It’s possible for us to think and practice new thoughts and beliefs – new Power Sentences – ON PURPOSE. 

Ones that SERVE our lives more than the current unintentional, unconscious thoughts and beliefs.

We can find the sentence that is running our life so we can make sure it is conscious and intentional.

The goal is to uncover our main Power Sentence, and make sure it’s what we want it to be.

Here’s an exercise to consider for finding your Power Sentence(s):

1. 1. Who are you? What are you doing with your life? (Answer with one sentence.)
2. 2. Are you doing it consciously? 
3. Is this who you want to be? 
4. Is this what you want to be doing with your life?
5. 3. When you look at your life as a result, you can see the SENTENCE CAUSING IT.
6. 4. What are the results you have vs. the results you want?
7. 5. Look at the effect of your sentences.

Here are some intentional, conscious Power Sentences to try on:

• “I am enough as I am, no matter what.”
• “I’m willing to figure out the things that are important to me.”
• “I’m deserving of what I want in my life.”
• “Everything happens FOR me to grow and learn.”
• “I embrace all challenges.”
• “I have value to contribute.”
• “I am an extraordinary/amazing human being.”

What might these types of thoughts prove true in our lives?

Your turn: What are you discovering about your Power Sentences? What Power Sentences do you want to start practicing on purpose? What experiences do you want to create in your life to become even more of who you want to be?

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