Find Yourself On The Inward Attainment Map – And Know What To Do Next
When you feel disconnected and don't know how to get out of the funk in your business, it's easy to try to work your way out of it by doing whatever trick or "must-do" you stumble upon first. Maybe you decide the way back to falling in love with your business is to start getting really serious about your Instagram photos, or that you will feel more joyful if you create a one-to-many offering. We want to end our discomfort, so we go straight to the symptom and put something on it and then move on – ignoring the fact that the plaster over the graze doesn't stop the longing in your chest.
We do this because the alternative is hard and long and without clear instructions. You've likely listened to people like me talk about needing to go inwards and connect to your why and act in alignment with your values. You've thought, "well sure, that makes sense" – but without a way 'in,' a structure to follow, it's near on impossible to actually do that. The sticking plasters are attractive because there's a definite set of rules and a tangible outcome at the end. Turning inward to figure out what you really want, less so.
This is where the Inward Attainment Map comes in. I talked about the origins of the IAM on this podcast episode (or you can read the transcript here), but the short version is that it is the refinement of how I help people find what they want to do into a single methodology. It's not a map to perpetual growth but to attaining your individual fulfilment and success from the inside out.
Crucially what the IAM does is take all that amorphous theory about values and alignment and turn it into something you can work through. So you can feel like you're making progress, like you're doing it, and what you're doing is the stuff that makes a real difference. Important to note is that the IAM is a cycle, not a straight line. Over time your values and priorities change and shift, and therefore your idea of fulfilment and attainment does too. This doesn't mean that you're fickle or never satisfied – it means you've reached the end of an IAM cycle, and it's time to reconnect inwardly.
So where are you currently on the Inward Attainment Map cycle, and, more importantly, what can you do to feel you're moving forward? Below I've laid out each stage's detail so you can recognise where you're at, and I've included a key action step for you to go and start applying it today.
Align
At the beginning stage, you're feeling lost and stuck, looking around for inspiration and not knowing what you want. You might be right at the beginning of your business journey or several years in, but what has happened is that your values have shifted, and what you are striving for hasn't moved with them. At the Align stage, we try to change our intention from "what does fulfilment look like?" to "what does fulfilment feel like?"A Key Action Step: create a vision of what fulfilment feels like to you – imagine how the most joyful, purposeful, successful version of you feels and how they live day to day and isolate those feelings so they can become a goal.
Accept
Once you know your values and know that changes need to happen, you meet resistance. You are full of excuses and reasons about why you can't do what you need to to make that change or why something won't work for you, and you feel overwhelmed by fears and blocks that make you want to reach for the sticking plaster or, worse, stay where you are. Rather than try to push down or overcome these feelings, we need to accept them as a part of the process and change "how do I overcome my blocks?" to "how do I work alongside my blocks?".A Key Action Step: understand the roots of blocks to work with them. Rather than shy away, look them right in the eye with compassion for yourself and trace back their origins to understand why they exist and take away some of the power they hold over you. Practice sitting in the discomfort of them, and find ways to do what you're afraid of with your fear sat next to you.
Apply
The third stage is the fun bit. You feel positive and inspired and can't wait to crack on with making changes and trying new things. However, you have a hundred different ideas you want to follow through on and no clear direction – you know where you want to be but not how you're going to get there. You can get sucked into doing all the things at this point, rather than building clear stepping stones, so we want to move from "what things can I do?" to "what things take me to my vision?".A Key Action Step: Create a values-led roadmap that works backward from your vision, including only activities and steps that feel good and aligned with your values.
Ascend
In this final stage, you are living it. You are immersed in your vision and roadmap, feeling calm and clear about what you're aiming for while seeking momentum and signs of change. Here we do not want to exist in a purgatory of waiting to reach the vision but practice being "towards and within": working towards your vision and living within it. This means changing "how long until I get where I want to?" to "how can I experience my vision today?".A Key Action Step: Practice Conscious Choosing. To avoid drifting from your vision, and piling up extra tasks, get into the habit of consciously choosing what you do. When an email asking you to do something drops into your inbox, consciously choose whether or not you do it, rather than let fear or people-pleasing control you.This has been a short tour of the Inward Attainment Map, and I hope you could see where you might be and what might be possible for you with some mindset shifts and a few key actions. If you'd like to dive deeper into this methodology and explore more of the actions you can take to attain more fulfilment and joy in your work, The Trail will be opening soon and allows you to "choose your adventure" through the methodology. Get on the waitlist here.
