Today’s post is by regular guest author Dale Swinburne. (Catch up on parts 1, 2, 3)
Each of us has incredible potential. We have been created to live a full life according to Chip Anderson. We’ve been walking through his Aliveness Theory as he charts for us the stark comparison we could experience in our lives as opposed to the lives we settle for.
As we allow the negative voices in our lives (see previous post) to dictate to us who we will become we begin to sink into, what Chip called, deadness. At first we start changing who we are. We try to become what they want us to be so that we will be worthy to receive their acceptance and love. As this pattern of living continues our pandering to their desires becomes perfected. We identify more with the mask we present to the world around us than we do our shrinking selves.
But as the descent to deadness continues a desire to control instead of being controlled continuously grows. Soon the desire to control the world around you is what drives you. You live behind a wall of denial driven by addictions to power and prestige. We have sunk into a level of living that denies the truth about ourselves. We deny our emptiness and our loneliness by treating the world around us as if we were God. We make demands of our context that they recognize our supremacy. When they don’t, we lash out in retribution and when they do we take it as evidence that we are God. Believing our own deity deception we then convince ourselves that if we are God then we are alive.
But we aren’t alive. We are walking dead. When we’ve gotten this low our defenses against the truth about ourselves are so thick it is only the fortunate that will see the truth that they are dead and empty inside except for the loneliness, the rage, the self contempt, and the pain.
It is a very bleak picture. A picture that is self perpetuating. But Chip Anderson’s theory isn’t the “Deadness Theory” it is the “Aliveness Theory” and it is what captivated him in his life work. It was exhilarating for him to watch somebody go from deadness to life.
So how does this process get turned around? Chip called the pivotal moment, where the momentum in someone’s life started flowing towards life and away from deadness, a “Big Arrow Experience”. A Big Arrow experience is an experience that provides a context that doesn’t require facades or addictions in order for you to feel accepted.
Chip poured his life into introducing Gallup’s StrengthsFinder into the lives of thousands of people, introducing it to over 100 universities and colleges. The StrengthsFinder assessment lets us know the 5 areas we are most talented in. It is usually a very affirming moment. You are told in which five areas you can achieve real excellence. As Chip participated in this moment over and over he saw the Aliveness Theory taking effect. The assessment was a Big Arrow experience. It told people that regardless of your defenses, your pain, your isolation, your deadness, you are unique and gifted. At this affirming moment it was as if an arrow pierced all of their defenses and all of their control and embedded itself right into the core of the person and said “You are valuable – no conditions.” For many it is a statement they haven’t heard in many, many years and it birthed a renewal of life inside of them.
But this is just the beginning of the process back to Aliveness. Chip taught about the process of feeling the Big Arrow awaken your true self but also the keys becoming a Big Arrow yourself.
Thanks for visiting Awaken. If you like what you're reading, you can stay up-to-date by email, RSS, or Twitter
