What makes you tick?

I like this question.

It requires you to stop, think, listen.

It’s 100% personal to you. No norms. No oughts or shoulds. No comparisons. No external definitions.

It implies being alive, responsive, activated.

It implies internal mechanisms which, when maintained, work well together.

It isn’t about love or passion. It’s not about extremes. No, it's subtle. It’s quiet.

It’s not about value or success.

It’s not begging an answer that demonstrates how you’re fully immersed and committed to a life-changing or world-changing activity.

In fact it allows you to articulate something which might seem quite mundane to others, while still being real and important – essential – to you.

It meets you where you are and doesn’t try to take you somewhere else.

It’s not about raison d’être, life purpose, or even temporary purpose.

It’s simply asking what’s there, at your core, amidst all that you have to do, all you choose to do, that gives out a quiet little sound and makes you conscious that you’re alive and moving inside. Something that needs to be activated and then activates you in turn.

Above all, I love it because it’s a fundamental question and a great starting point for reflection on what you’ve got, what you want and what you could have. It takes you out of the world, for a while, and helps you recognise some positive aspects of your relationship with it which you might have forgotten.

It requires you to work backwards from the things that appear to answer the question to the thing that actually answers it.

Yet it may be difficult to hear above the noise of life.

So quieten down and listen for it. Where is it coming from? Where is it hiding? What’s drowning it out?

Can’t hear it? Then get in touch to discuss how I can help you sit quietly and listen to yourself.

Photo: Nick Fewings on Unsplash