Hungry?

As a coach I work with a variety of people in different situations.  Often people come to me at times of transition from one phase of life to another.I have observed that there is a professional transformation that happens in people who have been successful; I call this transition the shift from Creating From Hunger to Creating From Full.Many people who have been successful in their careers or life callings began their path to success from a sense of hunger or drive to create or become something.  This hunger can be for wealth, success, power, excellence, vision, education, a family . . . or whatever else might drive a person.  This hunger for something gives us great power and focus. For many of us, it keeps us going. It keeps us learning, risking, inventing, and building. This kind of hunger, like physical hunger, is very inspiring.Creating from hunger has a particular flavor, and you can recognize someone who is creating from this inner drive. They are relentless.However, once we have fulfilled our hunger, like after a big meal, the drive goes away.  We become interested in different things and we approach things differently.Once we have fulfilled our life hunger, once we have accomplished and met some or all of our goals, we start to feel full.  Now we are ready for a transition.All too often I see someone who has become full or fulfilled and ready for something new try the same approach. Creating from hunger is all they have ever known, so they come up with a new idea, project, or business, and then expect to find the same drive again.And it is not there . . . that approach no longer works.Now what?We have to recognize at this stage that we have to find a new way to create.  Creating from fullness is very different than creating from hunger.When we are creating from hunger we are trying to fill ourselves.From fullness, however, we can create from a sense of abundance.  In abundance we have something to share.If you are full and over-flowing, it is time for a new picture, one where you are sharing yourself, your expertise, your wisdom, insight, creativity, love, and ability.  In a traditional sense you are moving from warrior to elder, from mother to grandmother (mother-to-all), and it requires different things from you. Just like puberty, it is a transition and an imperative.  In our growth we are being asked to take on the new, bigger, deeper, and more spiritual ways of being in the world.If you are at this transition and try to do it in the old way, you will not succeed with the same tools as when you were hungry.  You are fulfilled, filled.  Continue to fulfill yourself, fill yourself to overflowing, and share the abundance you have created in yourself.It is not for you to question your offering; you can only continue to grow by sharing it.  In fact there is a whole new abundance waiting for you to begin your next step.Learn to speak, share, coach, mentor, donate, contribute, collaborate, write, create, or build, not to fill yourself, but to share your abundance and wisdom.If you are still in the hunger phase, great!  Now you know there is another step after that.If you are full, great!  Now you can be solidly and securely in life and share yourself.P.S.  For parents:  if you are keeping your adult children full in money, housing, jobs, education . . . then consider letting them get hungry. It is their time to create from hunger.