The Four Addictions

I recently read an interesting article about planning your life and the obstacles we place in our path. Tom Perry, CEO of YourCoach and author of the book Life By Design, asked some interesting questions.

He asks questions about the direction we want our lives to go. Later in the article, he discusses the Four Addictions that keep us from reaching our goals. As he says, they are very difficult to answer. Give it a shot.

1. Why are you here -- what's your purpose?
2. How do you want to show up for others -- what are your values?
3. What are your God-given talents?
4. Five years from now, how is the world experiencing you?
5. Who would you already be if you were already there?

Spend some time thinking about these questions. These are not the type of question that you can answer immediately. They are questions that require deep reflection. They probably require meaningful discussions your loved ones. Don't let that stop you, though. Get five sheets of paper and start writing something about each one of these. Write until you run out of energy and then put the papers aside. Come back a week later and think some more. Keep at it. It may take years of on-again off-again work before you are happy with the results, but it's worth the effort.

In addition to these questions, he discussed what he calls The Four Addictions. Think how much happier we would be without these addictions.

The Four AddictionsI've discovered four addictions we all have that destroy more dreams, more hopes and more lives than alcohol, drugs, food, gambling or sex combined. When I refer to addictions, I am not focused on any of these. To me, those are habitual symptoms or effects brought on by four much larger causes that are the root cause of those symptoms They are:
1) The Addiction to opinions of other people. As a society, we're addicted to what others think about us and how others' views of the world affect us.
2) The Addiction to drama. Some people are drawn to and consumed by any event or situation that occupies their thoughts and fills their mind with negativity, which often brings attention to them in unproductive ways.
3) The Addiction to the past. These people have an unhealthy attachment to events or situations that have occurred in the past. They're stuck in how things used to be.
4) The Addiction to worry. This addiction is comprised of all the negative and self-defeating thoughts that make us anxious, disturbed, upset and stressed, that hold us back in life.

There is much more in the original article at http://www.huffingtonpost.com/tom-ferry/the-4-addictions-that-des_b_582556.html

© 2011 Eric Borreson