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In the hurry burry of living, have you ever found yourself in a place where you start wondering if you are suffering from the Imposter Syndrome or feel that you have lost your true identity and are out of authenticity?
Ever started wondering about your life purpose? Then consider checking in on your Life Stance Manifesto or if haven’t got one, creating one to be your touchstone.
As we travel on the journey called Life, we do change. The person who you are today is not going to be the person you are tomorrow.
We grow with our experiences but when you start to feel that you are getting out of alignment with your core values and what you truly believe in; then it is as good a time as ever to craft your Life Stance Manifesto to remind you of what really matters.
It’s often a sign that you have experienced a Wakeup Call and are being beckoned to answer your Call to Adventure as I outline in my book, Wakeup Calls: What happens when you accept Your Call to Adventure.
A manifesto is a published verbal declaration of the intentions, motives, or views of the issuer, be it an individual, group, political party or government. It is derived from the Italian word manifesto, itself derived from the Latin manifestum, meaning clear or conspicuous. Manifestos that relate to a religious belief are referred to as creeds.
Often political (like Karl Marx’s Communist Manifesto) or artistic, I remember reading The Zen Manifesto by Osho many years ago which outlined his philosophy.
A Manifesto can also represent a person’s Life Stance which is what we will create in this post.
What is a Life Stance?
Before we can craft our Manifesto, it is important to actually understand what we mean by Life Stance.
Harry Stopes-Roe, of the Humanist movement, defined Life Stance as
– the style and content of an individual’s or a community’s relationship with that which is of ultimate importance; the presuppositions and commitments of this, and the consequences for living which flow from it.
Your Life Stance is your relationship with what you believe to be of utmost importance to you and encompasses your belief system and perspectives of reality by which you choose to live. It is your core essence and what comes into play when you ‘walk your talk’.
The beauty of about a Life Stance Manifesto is that no two are ever alike because no two people are ever the same. Each Life Stance Manifesto is unique and holds up a mirror to the creator of the Manifesto to check if they are living according to their truth.
Your Life stance Manifesto can be as long or short as you want; all it really requires is that it represents all that is of utmost importance to you and in a manner of speaking, non-negotiable.
Here’s an example of my Unapologetic Manifesto that I wrote recently to summarize what was important for me – to live my life without apologizing for my beliefs and on my terms.
(Update: Post recent WordPress security updates, you need to click below the image where it says to click here to be taken to the presentation on Slideshare. The presentation will open in a new window and I invite you to follow me on Slideshare-Vatsala Shukla)
Click here to see the presentation
What you see is taking sentences and completing them with what holds value for you and what you really believe it.
Write Your Life Stance Manifesto
Want to have a shot at writing your own Life Stance Manifesto?
First you need to work out what really portrays your true and authentic self.
To get you started on identifying this element, check out the following posts for ideas on your life purpose and how you would like your obituary to read.
How to discover your Life Purpose and fulfill your Destiny
and How would your obituary read?
Then, choose 5 or 6 that are most important for you and create your statements. Remember, the key – utmost importance to you and are truths that you live by.
Here are some sentence examples that you can use.
When I wake up in the morning………
I am………
I believe………
I am happiest when…….
The one thing I want to be remembered as………………..
This is just an idea of the proclaiming sentences that you can create.
To be effective, you must be able to see the Life Stance Manifesto whenever you are feeling out of alignment with your purpose.
Take it a step further. Find images and superimpose your statements on them using power point slides. You might want to create a power point slide with all your core statements and print it.
Keep it in a place where you can see your Life stance Manifesto when you feel out of alignment with all that you hold close to your heart.
Give it a shot, you might just see the effect trickle into your Vision and Mission Statements and who knows, your Brand Statement too.
Your next mission, if you choose to accept it is to share some of your lines of your Life Stance Manifesto here and inspire other readers to create their own. So, are you game to share?
Written By: Vatsala Shukla
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Vatsala, this is a great post and is very timely for me; as I am doing a lot of introspection with the life events that surround me. I do find myself in conflict sometimes as I want to be successful, however, I want a balanced success in my life and I am figuring out what that means to me – first it definitely means getting better organized so that I’m not working at 11 PM at night! This will help me to keep moving in that direction of clarity I am looking for to bring my dreams and success to the forefront. Thank you for sharing this!
Happy to be of support, Tamara. In this day and age of technology, life moves very fast and we often find ourselves exhausted and overwhelmed. Having a Life Stance Manifesto will help to realign our life with our core values and what really matters to us in the long run. Clarity is the first step back to being in control rather than being controlled.
Excellent post, Vatsala! You have provided a great perspective on creating a Manifesto. I haven’t formerly written out a personal or business one, and appreciate you explaining this so well. Thank you for the encouragement!
Thank you for the compliment, Robin. I have my personal Life Stance Manifesto and interestingly, am working on a business/professional one for Karmic Ally Coaching. 🙂
Very informative! During some down time this weekend I plan to work on my manifesto. I’ve had so many transitions that I think this would help me re – focus and staying true to me. Thank you for sharing!
Glad you found it informative, Sharise. I believe the exercise of working on your Manifesto this weekend will be fruitful to help you stay focused in times of deep transformation on the real You and what really matters to you. Best of luck! 🙂
What an awesome and very interesting post Vatsala! I shall have to start doing this because as I get older I just want to live more simpler and you have laid out some awesome steps to help me do just that 🙂 Thanks for always sharing such fantastic posts!
Glad you liked the post, Joan. Would love to see your Manifesto when you create it.
This is a great post, Vatsala, and offers some new ways to re-look at ones life and create a template of what is most important to them at this stage of their life. I am in a place now where this will be a very wonderful tool to flush out the key values and intentions I have at this point in my life. Enjoyed your clear and concise steps. Thanks!
Most welcome, Beverley. I look forward to reading more about your Life Stance Manifesto.
So beautifully written and explained. When I worked as a career counselor my manifesto would have been similar to yours. I do need to create a new one for the stage I am at now. Love your examples and guidelines. Now to carve the time to do it. Really inspired by you.
Thank you Roslyn. The beauty of Manifestos is that they are not cast in stone and do change as we grow although the core essence stays the same. Please do share your new Manifesto with me! I’d love to see it.
This is a great post Vatsala and gives me food for thought. I have heard of similar processes to help live an authentic life and have considered doing a manifesto for some time. Perhaps this post is the push to get it done. Thanks 🙂
Having a Life Stance Manifesto or a Manifesto that documents your core values helps to maintain a clear perspective on our lives and actions, Ian. One of the best ways to simplify life is to keep one’s core values in mind. I know you will love creating your own personal Manifesto.
Kind of do this once in awhile in my own way, Vatsala. You’ve given me a different perspective on this. Thanks!
Most welcome, Norma. Thanks for visiting The Karmic Ally Coaching Experience Blog.
You have inspired me to create a FAMILY Manifesto in addition to a personal one. My hubby and I were just talking about how we both feel there is just too much going on in our lives right now that we can’t focus and do it all. Time to return to our true selves and help our young children discover what our family should really be all about. Thank you!
I’m delighted that the Life Stance Manifesto post has inspired you, Heather. Family is a very important part of our lives and which often gets overlooked even though we do not mean for it to happen. Staying aligned with our true selves and values is what makes life beautiful. Thanks for sharing!