What Is Your WHAT?: Discover The One Amazing Thing You Were Born To Do

Chapter 2

The Vortex of Vulnerability

Knowing others is intelligence; knowing yourself is true wisdom.

Mastering others is strength; mastering yourself is true power.

—Lao Tzu

There's an old adage that says, “Better the devil you know than the devil you don't.”

It's true that we typically fear the unknown much more than the familiar. But positioning yourself to look what you don't know in the eye—and refusing to back down—will empower you to achieve breakthrough results.

The Vortex of Vulnerability will help cultivate this strength. It's composed of a three-step process. Each step will help you gain clarity as to who you are and why you do what you do. When combined, the steps will help you move forward with conviction and purpose, and reveal aspects of your life you aren't consciously aware of but that have a profound impact on your behavior.

Let's begin.

Step One

Identify three recent times in your life when you absolutely lost it.

Losing it varies for different people. It might mean yelling at someone at the top of your lungs, sending a nasty email, or not returning someone's phone call. The specific way in which you lose it isn't important for this exercise. What matters is that you identify the times when you've lost control and resorted to your most primal, or natural, way of being. Take the time to replay these moments in your mind with as much detail as possible.

Think about what set you off. What led to the exact moment when you could no longer think straight? Now identify ...