1 LIFE PATH: The Leader Personal Mission: To Develop Creativity and Confidence in Every Aspect of Your Life A born leader, you’re self-motivated, independent, and a hard worker. You thrive in a competitive environment, although you often get sidetracked by listening to the non-stop voice of criticism in your head, whispering incessantly: “You’re not good enough.” Make sure to practice turning the channel when you start listening to that station! That voice isn’t telling you the truth. It’s a decoy that leads you away from your true power. In your life, you go through three tiers of development.  First, you realize and question the way in which you feel dependent.  This shows up in various ways and yet is primarily lodged in your feelings of dependency on your family or surroundings to the point where you question yourself in relationship to this form of identity. The second aspect of development usually shows up as rebellion as you attempt to extract yourself from your feelings of dependence and individuate yourself.  This takes a while. Then, if you're able to manage this successfully and come out with a healthy sense of independence, then it's time for you to move forward into achievement. As an individualist, you’ve most likely felt unique in many ways. You have innovative and advanced creative ideas.  Yet when you’re feeling insecure, you feel you just don’t fit in or belong anywhere, as though you’re really out of sync with the demands and expectations of the world. When you’re being your authentic self, you’re the kindest, most trustworthy, compassionate, and compelling individual. When you aren’t feeling confident, you tend to be pushy, defensive, aggressive, and angry. Those emotions are your chosen outlets when you’re having self-doubts. It’s crucial for you to work on honing your skill at anything you do, whether that means your job skills, communication skills, or relationship skills. Reaching a level of expertise instills you with a reliable sense of self-confidence.  As a 1 Life Path, having complete trust in the skills you’ve learned and mastered will serve as a kind of “security blanket” for you when you’re feeling insecure or your sense of confidence is under fire. Having the ability to fall back on high-level skills you know inside out will stabilize you and get you back in your game. You’re a pioneer, an innovator, and capable of great success and achievement in the world. You need to be in charge and managing in some way. You would make a great entrepreneur or inventor. Often the highest and best use of your abilities is when you mastermind a project, get it up and running, make sure management systems are in place, and then you’re off to the next venture. You might feel stagnant if you don’t allow yourself to tackle new challenges. You’re full of creative energy, so embrace your creativity and understand that this is your gift. Imagine new things, introduce new concepts, and then delegate the details and either move on with another project or continue developing your project while taking it to the next level of success. However you define it, you enjoy being on the move and having a variety of things to do. Anything that calls for tapping into your unique voice, independent action, and decision-making is your forte. When choosing a career, you must ask: “What is it I’ve always wanted to be or do?” and then just do it.  Really, nothing can stand in your way. Whether or not you know it, you have an amazing capacity to do whatever you focus on after you clear away the clutter of self-doubt. When you’re secure in your abilities and have confidence, you’re fabulously dynamic. You also—whether or not you know it yet—have healing hands. You’re a natural healer and can use this ability in every aspect of your life. You don’t have to become a massage therapist or an energy worker unless you want to. That’s not what I’m saying. Healing energy surrounds all aspects of what you do and guides your action when you’re functioning optimally. As you develop your leadership skills, nurture the best in others and understand that creativity flourishes in an atmosphere of inner security and confidence; meaning you must open up, take risks, and step off the beaten path. Your constant challenge is to consistently and consciously develop your sense of being self assured, self-directed, and centered. When you express your passion from the heart, you can achieve great things in the world. Be careful of succumbing to feelings of superiority, judgment, and criticism. You’re most effective when you work directly with people and key into their innate gifts and strengths. Beware:  Since you're all about #1, you can tend to see only your own wants and needs and have trouble listening to anyone else's point of view.  When this happens, "1" can truly be the loneliest number. You're more powerful when you take the lead, yet know that you aren't an island.  If you're successful, it's because of the participation of others in manifesting your vision.  Make sure you share your gratitude. Common threads when a 1 Life Path is “on fire” from working with optimal energies are boldness, innovation, risk taking, resilience, and following the inner voice. Your life purpose is to bring positive creative energy into the world. 1 LIFE PATH: Potential Challenges Your potential challenges are: To come to terms with insecurity and the tendencies to block, withhold, or discharge energy through addictive behaviors. To acknowledge that when you lack self-confidence you’re lured into inaction and stagnation. To realize that if you’re not using your creativity you’re prone to feel lethargic, frustrated, or held back. To understand that you may appear to have a chip on your shoulder, as if you have something to prove to yourself and to others. To understand that when you feel under fire, you default into negativity, judgment, cynicism, and anger and aggressively express those feelings to others. To know that you excel in creative problem-solving, yet often lack the confidence to express and capitalize on your innate skills. To know you tend to experience crippling self-doubt when dealing with something new. To appreciate that action and ambition are key components of who you are and aren’t to be avoided. To work constructively with the fact that you don’t like to be told what to do. To make sure to choose partners who are your equals both in intimate and in business relationships. You won’t have satisfying partnerships if you choose to partner with people who are weaker or more submissive than you. To comprehend that when you’re working with destructive tendencies you lean toward self-absorption, self-interest, cynicism, and selfish focus. 1 LIFE PATH: Strengths to Develop The “confident you” has unique perceptions, style, and magnetism that attracts others. Always trust and follow through on your unique visions. You aren’t meant to follow the crowd. You’re dynamic when you’re working with confidence. Remember you’re a trailblazer. Since you’re on the front lines, you’ll experience a lot of “failures” and stumbling blocks. So what? Those experiences can fuel you to develop new ideas and follow through on your revolutionary projects. You’re resilient. You’re knocked down over and over again in your life. Know that you’re going to get more than your share of this! You’re not going to think it’s fair. The key is to learn from your failures rather than be devastated by them. You’re a whiz at accomplishing a multitude of tasks. When you set your mind to accomplishing something and go about it with direction, confidence, and empathy toward others, you’re working optimally. You’re a creative problem-solver. Give yourself lots of pats on the back for a job well done and for bouncing back from adversity. Work on letting yourself hear positive affirmations in your head rather than self-deprecating and self-defeating “tapes.” Creativity in all forms is at the core of your being. Enjoy and embrace every opportunity to use your creativity and pursue your innovative and original thinking.