The Book of ‘U’

I remember in some of our leadership training sessions in the past I would sometimes ask the question, “If your friends or family were to write a biography of your life story, what would the title be?”

Don’t get me wrong here, what others’ think about you is important in a lot of ways, but totally unnecessary for you to discover the real U.

It is an eye-opening experience. Think about what you would write as the title, compared to others would put as the title. There are several books I suppose we could write about our lives. The secret things book. You know the one that reveals how you REALLY feel about people and situations. There is also what I call the book of dreams.

Would your life story be horror story, love story, drama, comedy, or God forbid a fiction? I am pretty sure I can say with confidence that your story probably didn’t turn out the way you planned it. But the reality for us is that it (is).

A great exercise I learned from Crystal Andrus was, Your Five Words. I visit this training over and over like on a monthly basis. The exercise is simply find the five words that describe you. What are the five words that reveal what you are all about. Five words that reveal your intent and desire to be in life. I searched out these words in my own life. I found it difficult to own them. I was having conflict in my mind over it for about a month.

Were these five words supposed to be the things I desired to be? Were these words what I perceived what others saw in me? Were the words to be a definition of how I think I am now?  This is how I interpreted the training session; my five words were at the core of who I really am. When you strip your life down to the bare bones material.  Like discovering the core of your purpose and intent at a cellular level.  Take away all of the labels of thought, definition, and opinion of others. In other words, who are you really without any form of external accomplishment, or possession.

I believe this is a wonderful exercise. I have had many of my friends try to come up with their five words. You see these five words is the bedrock of identity. Since I believe life is really a stage to discover the RealU, then it’s imperative that we find these words. When you find these core nuggets, then you can begin to live an authentic life.

Meaning you become aware of alignment to these core values and context. Everything else that does not line up with your core words, is merely a shadow of the RealU!

So what are your words? What is the Title of the Real Book of You?