Secrets of Enlightened Success

Part One

by Jamie Smart

(click on the author's name for biographical info)

NLP Tip 330 – The Secrets of Enlightened Success – Part 1 – Introducing Your Enlightened Success

Last week we played with the power of awareness (a resource which you'll be glad to hear that everyone reading this tip has). This week, I'm going to introduce the most important series of articles I've ever written. Over the next 10 issues of the NLP tip, we're going to be exploring what I consider to be the most powerful psychological principles in existence. These principles aren't just essential for people practicing NLP – these are the secrets to living the kind of happy, fulfilling life you desire, & creating success on your own terms. In this article, I'm going to start revealing the secrets of Enlightened Success.

So what is Enlightened Success? Enlightened Success is what everybody wants – it's having your cake & eating it. It's good feelings & a vibrant experience of living combined with fulfilling relationships, whatever achievements & material success you want to enjoy, & a life that's rich with meaning & purpose. So let's look at these one by one.

It all boils down to good feelings. You can choose almost any goal, purchase, or desire in your life, & ask "Why is that important?". Drill down a few levels & you'll get to a feeling. For example:

A: "I want a new car"

B: Why is that important?

A: "So I have more credibility with my business clients."

B: Why is that important?

A: "So they'll trust me & want to work with me."

B: Why is that important?

A: "So I'll have a thriving business & a good source of income."

B: Why is that important?

A: "So I'll feel secure"

It always boils down to a feeling (if you doubt this, try it out for yourself). Motivation comes from feelings – we're motivated to move towards the feelings we want, & away from the ones we don't want.

In Western society, we've been conditioned to believe that those feelings come from external sources such as money, jobs, relationships, health, achievements etc, but this is not the case.

The reality is, all feelings come from inside you.

But if you hold the belief that you need the external thing to experience the feeling, then that is likely to be your experience. Perversely, if you believe you need the outside thing in order to experience the inside feeling, it can actually make it MORE difficult to get the outside thing!

Enlightened Success means seeing through this conditioning, & deeply understanding where our most valued feelings come from (& where they don't come from).

Life is supposed to be a vibrant & fulfilling experience – the natural human response to being alive is vibrant engagement, curiosity & wonder (if you doubt this, spend a few hours with a one-year old child). The only thing that ever stands in the way of a vibrant experience of living is a person's thinking.

Many people have learned to live life "through their heads", having an intellectual experience of life, rather than a fully present, physical experience of life.

As one of the patron saints of NLP, Fritz Perls said, "Lose your mind & come to your senses"

Enlightened Success means living in the present, fully aware & in your body, having a vibrant experience of life.

My coach Michael Neill says "Connection & intimacy is what happens naturally when there's nothing in the way." Human beings are built to connect with one another. Intimacy is a naturally emerging property of human relationships.

So what gets in the way?

Thinking, in a variety of forms:

• Urgency
• Attachment to a result
• Self-image (I want to be seen as the kind of person who x, y or z)
• Self-importance
• Self-centredness
• Being non-present

When you're fully present, & there's nothing getting in the way, fulfilling relationships are the norm.

Enlightened Success means having deep, fulfilling relationships with the people you care about (including moments of real connection with all kinds of people who you meet on a day to day basis).

It can be wonderful to set goals & enjoy working towards their achievement, but all too often goals become mirages of distant good feelings, an excuse to put off feelings of happiness & well-being in the present, in exchange for the illusion of deferred happiness.

How often have you met someone who tells you about the wonderful future they have planned, but radiates unhappiness, neediness & struggle? This is one of the indicators of toxic goal-setting.

Enlightened Success means only having goals that improve the quality of your life today.

Another quote from Michael Neill - "Unhappy people want what they want in order to make themselves happy. Happy people just want what they want."

Once you deeply realise that all the feelings you may have been attributing to external stuff actually come from inside you, then you're free to create whatever you want on the outside. Because your feelings of self-esteem, security & well-being aren't dependent on it, it takes the pressure off, & the process of creation becomes a lot easier.

As another one of my teachers, Ian Watson, says "Once you realise you don't need anything, you're free to have whatever you want."

Enlightened success means joyfully creating the life you desire.

Many human beings long for a sense of meaning & purpose in life. In the modern world, we're inundated with messages from every direction (including yours truly – please bear with me). News, politicians, advertisers, how-to books & a thousand other sources offer information that can be overwhelming.

Sometimes it can be difficult to block out those ten-thousand voices & tune in to the gentle voice of your wisdom. But it's there. It's there within each one of us. And that wisdom offers solution to every problem or perceived problem there is. And that wisdom offers guidance that, when you follow it, will result in the unfolding of a life of meaning & purpose, richer & more fulfilling than you may ever have thought possible.

Enlightened success means living a life of meaning & purpose, walking a path that exists for you & you alone.

I'll be expanding on all of these principles in the weeks to come – stay tuned for what's going to be your most inspiring, powerful & profound series of tips yet (if I say so myself)!

Jamie Smart