When you activate your 10 human drives with the intention of achieving personal and spiritual growth, you nourish your soul. And when you live a life that feeds your soul, you consistently feel alive, happy, peaceful, and fulfilled. You’ve figured out how to have spacious days, engage in meaningful activities, and create joyful relationships. You’ve ensured that whatever you desire most—higher consciousness, creativity, time with friends, the ability to say “no” to what doesn’t serve you and “yes” to what does, or greater levels of love and service—are included in your life.
As a result, you feel terrific! Charged up. Aligned. Harmonious. Congruent. Joyful. Tranquil. Balanced. On purpose.
I want that quality of life, don’t you?
But when you live a life that doesn’t nourish your soul… Even if you haven’t experienced it personally, you can imagine what that’s like.
No one really wants to live that quality of life, do they?
Activate Your Human Drives to Feed Your Soul
There are many ways to create a soul-nourishing life. I’ve written about many of them in this post and in this one, too. However, activating your human drives provides a powerful way to feed your soul, which I want to discuss in this post.
In his book, The Charge, Brendon Burchard identifies 10 human drives. When you direct your thoughts, feelings, and behaviors toward activating these drives, you find ways to better support your progress and performance and nourish your soul.
Yet, most often, people intentionally activate the 10 human drives to achieve personal growth. But you are more than just a human being. You are also a spiritual being. Therefore, it’s important to activate these drives with the intention of achieving spiritual growth as well. That’s when you experience true transformation.
Remember, you are a spiritual being having a human experience. The drives are part of the human experience but also impact your spiritual experience. After all, whatever you do in this lifetime either nourishes or starves your soul. Activating the drives with both your human and spiritual nature in mind offers an opportunity to create a life that feeds body and soul.
A Simple Strategy for Activating Your Human Drives
How do you activate your 10 human drives in a manner that provides both personal and spiritual growth? Use the simple strategy I’ve provided below.
For each drive, I’ve included a brief description, two questions, and a tip. Answer both questions for each specific drive. Then, use your answers and the tip to activate that drive.
This simple strategy allows you to create your own processes for activating all 10 drives. When you do that, you will implement many ways—20 in all—to create a life that feeds your soul.
1. Control
It’s imperative to have a healthy balance of control. If you feel out of control, or you control the wrong things (or too many things), you can end up feeling uncertain, disappointed, anxious, or unfulfilled. Control the right things, though, and you create certainty, satisfaction, contentment, and fulfillment.
What aspects of your personal life are worth controlling?
What aspects of your spiritual life are worth controlling?
Tip: Give up all things that are not worth controlling—or that can’t be controlled. Only control the things that are truly important to you.)
2. Competence
Combine your knowledge, skill, and ability in any life arena, and you have competence. A lack of competence leads to less confidence, making it hard to go for your dreams. Thus, competence impacts your ability to nourish your soul, and you came into your physical body to realize those dreams.
In which area of life do you need more competence to pursue your dreams and live a life that feeds your soul?
If you remove your negative mental chatter about how incompetent you are, what would you know with certainty you need to do next to feed your soul?
Tip: Your reptilian brain’s job is to keep you safe. It will point out many areas of incompetence to have you not do anything new or different—including finding ways to nourish your soul. Remember that you are more competent than your mind indicates, but increase competence where necessary.
3. Congruence
Congruence is the feeling of living in alignment and integrity with your beliefs, values, and authentic self. It’s consistently being who you choose to be and behaving in accordance with your self-image or identity. You feel out of sorts, uncomfortable, and unhappy when you lack congruence. On the other hand, when you show up with congruence, you feel a sense of peace and alignment with your spiritual and physical self.
How can you be more congruent in your behavior?
How can you be more congruent with your highest self or soul (or who you want to be)?
Tip: Congruence is not the same as integrity, although these sounds have similar meanings. Congruence is the quality of agreeing, corresponding, or being suitable and appropriate. Integrity is steadfast adherence to a strict moral or ethical code. When you are in integrity with your highest self, you experience congruence. Also, when you are congruent with your highest self, you will act with integrity.
4. Caring
When you are cared for, you feel psychologically safe and accepted as well as engaged and grateful. If you feel deep caring for others, you become happier, healthier, and able to give or be of service.
How can you feel more cared for by people in your life?
How can you care for others at a deeper level?
*Tip: Don’t wait to care for others until you feel cared for by specific people. But don’t feel you “should” care for people who don’t care for you—or that you don’t sincerely care about.
5. Connection
Connection involves contact or a relationship with your soul, self, purpose, others, nature, animals, and the moment. Humans crave connection because it feeds both our physical and spiritual nature.
What connections are lacking in your life?
What connections make you feel alive, happy, fulfilled, and loving?
Tip: Don’t focus only on connecting with others. Sometimes what feeds your soul more than anything else is a connection with yourself…or with nature or a creative project.
6. Change
Change is how we adapt, grow, and actualize our best selves and potential. But sometimes, change feels difficult or doesn’t last. Long-lasting change is the goal.
What personal change could you make that would create a 5X difference in you and your life?
What one change would help you expand your consciousness or become more in tune with your soul’s guidance?
Tip: Transformation—long-lasting change—results from making small (or large) changes over time. However, one small change can sometimes make the most significant difference in your ability to live a soul-aligned life.
7. Challenge
Challenge is central to change and growth. Plus, challenge makes us feel alive. Path of challenge leads to feeling more engaged and fulfilled because meeting challenges means realizing your human potential. At the same time, a challenge also demands that you trust yourself and your spiritual guidance system or intuition.
What challenge would help you activate your human drives at a higher level and feed your soul?
What challenge will help you access your soul’s guidance and align with your soul?
Tip: As a human being, you’ve experienced personal and spiritual growth from challenges like illness, accidents, divorce, etc. But you can challenge yourself personally and spiritually without unwanted experiences or circumstances.
8. Creative Expression
Creative expression is how you share your unique identity with the world—how you dress, speak, behave, decorate your home, and more. It’s about knowing who you are and sharing that authentic self with the world by giving voice to your ideas and using your gifts to leave a positive mark on the world.
How could you better express your uniqueness?
How can you share your authentic self and unique gifts at a greater level?
Tip: There is no more powerful way to live a life that feeds your soul than allowing your individuality to shine light up the world. Find ways to express yourself daily!
9. Contribution
Contribution makes you look outside of yourself, find ways to be of service, and discover meaning in what you do. It’s the secret to feeling like you’ve made a difference and fulfilled a purpose beyond your needs—a soul purpose.
How can I contribute or make a difference at a higher level than I do currently?
What is my soul purpose, mission, or calling, and how can I fulfill it?
Tip: You may not believe you can make a difference, but you can. In your unique way, you can add value, give, be of service, make a mark, or leave a legacy. Let this drive fuel your ambitions and help you fulfill your potential and purpose.
10. Consciousness
Humans are the only species on Earth that seeks heightened consciousness or awareness of themselves and their surroundings. Their soul longs for expansion—to be more awake, understand how the universe works, know why they are alive and in a body, and access spiritual guidance and knowledge. And the more conscious you become, the more able you are to live a soul-directed life.
How can you live more consciously?
How can you allow your soul to be your internal GPS?
Tip: You come into a physical body conscious of both your physical and spiritual nature. After birth, your life is bout remembering who you really are and what you know—becoming conscious again. Give yourself the gift of tapping into your spiritual guidance system and taking action based on your intuition, which is the language of the soul.
You’ve answered 20 questions, which means you have 20 ways to activate your 10 human drives and nourish your soul. Each activation provides you with another way to live a life that feeds your soul.
What value have you discovered by activating your human drives? Tell me in a comment below. And please share this post with a friend or on social media.
If you want to activate your 10 human drives so you nourish your soul consistently, let’s chat. Get on my calendar here. Or join the Inspired Creator Community for group transformational coaching every month. (In March 2023, we begin a new series related to the human drives.)
It’s time to transform, is it not? Join the Inspired Creator Community. You probably already realize that you need to change from the inside out. That’s how you become a person who does the things that allow you to create your desires. As a member, you get access to intuitive transformational coaching, world-class personal growth coaching, and strategies for living a life that feeds your soul. And you will discover that you are a powerful creator able to create what you want (not what you don’t want). Join now!Photo courtesy of: gorodenkoff
