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Living in Harmony
By Azim Jamal www.azimjamal.com
To be congruent means to be in agreement, to harmonize, or to correspond. When your life is in congruence, anything and everything you do is in harmony with your core values and principles. Intentional congruence means that you intentionally get involved in projects and associations that connect harmoniously with each other and with your overall core values and principles.
Intentional congruence is a purposeful system to maximize your potential through synergy, leverage and interlocking opportunities. You know you have it when two or more of your activities and strategies cumulatively create more than either could create separately.
Motivational speaker Qubein Nido’s network of interests provides a model. He is a professional speaker, which feeds into his consulting, which feeds into his magazine publishing, which leads to business for his public-relations firm. All of these add to his stature as the president of High Point University. Everything he does has an interlocking relationship with everything else he’s involved in. The result is maximum effectiveness and productivity.
Living a life of congruence invites balance. Everything is connected to the bigger purpose. You can achieve that congruence by examining the purpose of your life and connecting everything you do to that purpose. Your purpose is at the centre of your being and is the source of your security, guidance and wisdom.
It is important, therefore, to determine what you want to place at the centre of your being — what you want to become the source of your core motivation. The most stable and enduring source is a positive, well-thought-out set of principles by which you choose to live your life. Your principles are based on your values — the most important things in your life.
When your life is people-centred, the important thing to you is what others want. When it’s possession-centred, the important thing is what you have. When it is activity-centred, the important thing is what you do. These are all external sources of motivation.
But when your life is principle-centred, the important thing is who and what you are. Your core motivation lies within you.
The principles we live by determine our character — the essence of who we are.
When you choose an external source of core motivation, you place yourself at the mercy of mood swings, inconsistent behaviour and uncontrollable changes of fortune. When you put principles at the centre of your life, you have a solid, unwavering foundation for decision-making.
When we live by our principles, we are being true to ourselves. This is quite different from being self-centred. Self-centred people don’t reach out to others, and don’t concern themselves with others’ interests. They therefore live their lives in emotional isolation, often developing mental-health problems.
By centering your life on valid principles, you create a stable, solid foundation for the development of your life-support factors. You embrace and encompass the truly important areas of your life. Successful relationships, achievement and financial security will radiate from the principles at your core.
The principles you base your life on should be deep, fundamental truths, classic truths, or generic common denominators. They will become tightly interwoven themes running with exactness, consistency, beauty and strength through the fabric of your life.
Intentions and desires come from your spiritual nature. Release them to the universe to take over, remembering that the universe knows more about you than you know about yourself. Surrender to its timing. Just as every seed embodies huge potential, so too does every person. Just as the seed must give itself to the fertile ground to reach its potential, so too must we give ourselves to the universe around us. The key is to marry the human mind with the universal mind and to become a conscious decision-maker.
When your inside and outside worlds are in harmony, you are enjoying intentional congruence.
Life balance comes from being, not doing
During your work life, you’ve undoubtedly encountered the advice that you compile a “to-do list.” It’s a standard tool of time management. We suggest that you prepare a “to-be list” and a “stop-doing list.”
French philosopher Rene Descartes enunciated the principle: “I think, therefore I am.” Most people extend that principle to “I do, therefore I am.” That’s the outside-in approach. We prefer the inside-out approach: “I am, therefore I do.” Let who you are dictate what you do.
From Life Balance the Sufi Way by Azim Jamal and Nido Qubein. Azim Jamal is the No. 1 Amazon Bestselling Co-Author of The Power of Giving: How Giving Back Enriches Us All (published by Penguin). Now available on Amazon and at major bookstores.
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