February is now on us. The month of love as many refer to it. Valentine’s Day brings with it a myriad of emotions for people, good and bad. After considering how this month will be for many people, I thought about love in the context of creating a lasting legacy in life and business. A colleague of mine created an acronym for love. To him, love means to Leverage Our Vulnerability Everyday (I also know that he has gone through a few revisions with it). This got me thinking about the importance of love and how we show up with love not in the most common sense of loving others, although important, but more so in the sense of how we truly love ourselves and captivate this love to show up better. With his permission, I want to explore this concept as I digest it.
To completely and honestly love others regardless of the definition you are using (romantic or plutonic, for example) we must learn how to love ourselves. What I like about this love acronym is how it encompasses the essential elements of what love is. Leveraging Our Vulnerability Every day. How we get there begins with an awareness of leverage.
Leverage is Essential
Many people reach a ceiling in their life, with their relationships, or their business and feel as though they are tapped, however capacity in an ever-growing container (our minds) will not tap out once we understand how to leverage it.
There is a saying about filling your cup up to overflow, so that you can pour out into others. This is EXACTLY where I am going. Leverage is about balance. In the financial industry leverage is about borrowed capitol for a return on investment. Leveraging in love terms, is about using our vulnerability as borrowed capitol.
Our Stories Contain Power
Love is not about others although love extends to others. Love is not about material things although who doesn’t love a good meal or a sweet treat. Love is an extension of our own self. The more are thoughts, words, and actions are aligned with our values, morals, and ethics the more capacity we have to give love out. Once we determine what our capacity is, showing up with love becomes an almost automatic program and process.
Vulnerability is Capitol
Understanding that what we bring to the table of every relationship is the vulnerability of our lives. This vulnerability comes in the form of experiences, situations, stories, heritage…. Virtually anything we have been a part of. Our mind is an amazing organ that stores life. How we bring that to the table is by vulnerability. We get to control how surface or deep our conversations are or how much other people learn about us.
This provides us with the ability to leverage our vulnerability is how we want to show up for others which directly will set the stage for what we receive from others.
Everyday…
Every single day we have the privilege if using our leveraged vulnerability to create, grow, stand still, or ruin something or someone. Love, then becomes the outlet for life. Deciding how we want to show up for ourselves will create the foundation for the day. Luckily, if we have a bad day, we most often get a fresh start the next. The concept of everyday is just that. Each day is new. Each day we get to build on or take away from the previous one. Just like in the financial realm monetary value fluctuates, so then can our love. The beauty though is that the market that controls the fluctuation is in our own mind.
I challenge you to take the time to dig deep into your life, your experiences, the situations and the seasons that have bought you to where you are today. Determine what parts of your story you bring to the table and leverage those vulnerable moments to strengthen relationships and partnerships…beginning the one in the mirror.