Written by Heather M. Burt, YIELD Coach
Heather Burt is the founder of Your Individual EvoLution Directive (YIELD) and author of Personal Evolution: Four Essential Elements For Navigating Your Life. Her passion and vision include helping others embrace an Evolutionary Mindset to align more fully with their authenticity, enabling them to share their gifts with the world.
Is there an alternative means for navigating life beyond the narrow definitions of good and bad or right and wrong as defined by family, culture, and society? What do you do when others’ ideas of what defines a successful life don’t work for you? One option is to choose to evolve.
Once you adopt an evolutionary mindset and choose the path of Personal Evolution, the rules that previously directed your choices are no longer relevant. When you decide to evolve, you communicate to the Universe that you understand you are unique, and so is your path. Without someone else’s map, you become the cartographer for your life’s journey.
Charting your journey
When building anything from scratch, you need structure to organize content to be understood and applied in context. This is the purpose of the Four Elements of Evolution: Awareness, Forgiveness, Vision, and Surrender. If you’ve been working on personal development for a while, you will recognize the Four Elements as familiar tools. However, when you begin applying them as a framework for Personal Evolution, they translate doing into being.
As you transition to using the Four Elements for making decisions rather than all the “shoulds” and “supposed tos,” you will likely find yourself toggling between them, relying on them only in limited situations. For example, you may start by crafting a Vision that inspires you and includes all the things you would like to do or have—ensuring you identify the beliefs, values, and traits of the type of person with the life you desire, as they will act like a compass to guide your choices.
Then, with intention and curiosity, cultivate Awareness to help you recognize when you are out of alignment with your Vision. If you notice negative emotions or judgmental internal dialogue arising, practice Forgiveness by understanding that your feelings provide valuable feedback and that the negative internal dialogue is a byproduct of conditioning. Lean into Surrender, sitting with what is, allowing time and space to process and integrate your emotions. Continue returning to Awareness to expand your perspective, allowing you to hold a larger reality and respond more deliberately to life.
From effort to ease
Initially, there will be a degree of effort, and the process may seem mechanical as you become accustomed to making decisions through Awareness based on what draws you closer to your Vision. At the same time, Forgiveness and Surrender will continue to create the necessary space for you to evolve.
As you practice using the Four Elements of Evolution, you may notice life beginning to flow more easily. Without a need to get things “right,” you can respond creatively. Pivoting in response to obstacles becomes effortless since you are not defined by your material goals but by the qualities of your character. Instead of being reactive, you respond deliberately, in alignment with your Vision. You no longer have to try to be patient, content, and compassionate because it’s who you are.
Over time, as you continue dropping through Surrender into Awareness while navigating the gap between your current life by practicing Forgiveness and the life you desire through living from a Vision, you come to realize you exist in the gap. Life is what happens between Forgiveness and Vision – letting go and evolving. Surrender allows for what is while you watch the unfolding drama from the still space of Awareness. The joys and sorrows, successes and failures, wins and losses are all still a part of life, but instead of being a victim of circumstance, you get to enjoy the journey.
If you want to learn more about Personal Evolution, visit my website at yield2evolve.com or pick up a copy of my book, Personal Evolution: Four Essential Elements For Navigating Your Life.
If you want to read more about the Four Elements of Evolution, visit my Brainz Executive Contributor page.
Read more from Heather M. Burt
Heather M. Burt, YIELD Coach
Heather Burt skillfully integrates distinct perspectives and methods in order to distill fundamental concepts so they can be applied universally. As a result of her own diverse background and journey to wholeness, Heather has found her passion in understanding and synergistically melding personal growth concepts to facilitate a broader, more individualized application. Her mission involves helping others experience freedom through Evolutionary thinking.
