| “Strength doesn’t come from what you can do. It comes from overcoming the things you once thought you couldn’t.” – Rikki Rogers |
Do you ever notice that some people seem to have the will to persevere and advance through obstacles more easily than others? Why might that be? Were they born with an advantage? Unlikely.
Is it resilience? Grit? Persistence? In fact, it’s a combination of all of the above – and more. It’s their inner strength. Inner strength is like a muscle – it can be learned and grows with practice. More importantly, inner strength is key to moving from high achievement to high performance.
What is inner strength and how does it help you?
Inner strength represents your ability to grow and direct your willpower, self-discipline, and staying power. It is your ability to not only remain resilient but also to persevere through challenges. Inner strength represents the tenacity of spirit – staying determined and persistent in purpose and mission, even in the face of adversity.
It’s your inner fortitude and expresses itself as assertiveness, courage, and the ability to push through your own internal resistance and external obstacles. Inner strength is an internal engine that drives you forward toward accomplishment and high performance. It’s the lifeblood of goal attainment.
In this 3-part series, I’ll present to you 3 practices that you can begin implementing right away to support your ability to improve and grow your inner strength. Here’s the first:
Practice Intention-Setting
Setting intentions supports goal attainment and your ability to stay present, focused, and self-aware as you move through a time period or toward a goal.
Intention-Setting keeps you aware that the goal isn’t exclusively in the achievement of what you want, it’s also in the experience of moving toward the finish line. When we lose sight of this, we often create a circumstance where we arrive at the finish line only to realize that our sense of accomplishment is short-lived and not as great as we expected it to be.
The reason for this is because, in retrospect, we have little to no memory about what the process was like. We failed to enjoy the experience – mostly because we didn’t bother to consciously create enjoyable or memorable moments when we were in it.
We arrive at the finish line and realize that the cost of getting there is actually much higher than we care to admit. Now we’re faced with the fallout of having made too many personal sacrifices for the sake of the goal. These sacrifices may have impacted your health, relationships, or finances.
This results in a cloud of frustrations where we find ourselves rationalizing whether or not our efforts were worthwhile. In addition, we now have to regain our health, repair our relationships, and fix our finances – not a good place to be. Practicing intention-setting will help you avoid this.
Use intention-setting to live in the present moment. Begin defining what you want your life experience to feel like. I suggest asking yourself the following questions and journaling your responses.
- How do I want to feel on the journey toward my goal that would add value to the experience? List 3 feeling words.
- Who will be affected by my journey toward my goal and what can I do to get their support and buy-in?
- Whom do I need to BE, and how do I need to show up in the experience in order to make this possible? Answer this question in context to your answers to the two previous questions.
A consistent practice of intention-setting increases the experience of happiness, joy, and fulfillment in your personal and professional life. Intention-setting is a great way to grow your inner strength and expands your influence and impact on others. It’s a beautiful thing when you’re able to consciously move through the journey of life together and live in the present moment.
Take some time to reflect and journal on the questions above. Don’t miss parts two and three of this 3-part series on Growing Your Inner Strength. Send me a message @coachoriana on Instagram and let me know your biggest take-away’s!
–Coach Oriana is a Life & Personal Performance Coach, Certified Relationship Coach, Business Consultant, Author, and Speaker. She is co-host of the Edgy Entrepreneur Podcast, available on all major podcast platforms.
Visit www.OrianaGuevara.com to learn more and to schedule a consultation.
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