Did you know that The Wow Factor is actually a thing? The definition states that it’s the distinctive appeal that an object, behaviour or person has on others. In other words, it’s an impressive display brought on by the experience of something or someone. 

In knowing this, how would you go about getting the WOW factor IF you wanted it? Have you ever thought about it? I’m interested in knowing …. 

Have you ever thought about YOUR WOW Factor?

Did you know that every single one of us have it? Yep.

In a world where one would think we were fully and wholeheartedly self-aware, the opposite is actually true. We’re the least self-aware in so far as to say that we really don’t understand who we are and what we’re capable of. What’s happened is that we’ve mistaken taking selfies as an answer.

Having said that, and I’ve said it before, it starts with you! How well do you know yourself?

“Knowing yourself is the beginning of all wisdom.” – Aristotle

How aware and conscious are you of your thoughts, actions, needs, desires, habits, strengths, weaknesses, emotions, values, and motivations? 

WARNING: If you’re coming from a place of ego then you will not be able to objectively and honestly examine, assess, discover, evaluate and uncover your WOW factor. Unless of course, you’re the only one that sees it. In which case, I hate to be the bearer of bad news. You then need to go back to learning more about becoming self-aware. 

If you’re able to dig deep and identify your distinct and unique qualities that set you apart, for example; your strengths, personality traits, interesting perspective, that sort of thing, you then may want to confer with your closest confidants whom you trust and respect for feedback. This helps to remove any preconceived bias that you may have of yourself. After all, you’re only human.

Mastery of self takes real work. We’re mostly comfortable with our surface self unless however something happens to us where we have to dig deeper. And even then, we make a choice to either deal with the need to better understand ourselves or run the other way. In which case it becomes avoidance and deflection. It’s just the way we are. 

If however, you’ve embraced the challenge to really understand yourself, then it’s time to take what you know about yourself and combine it with your passion. 

Passion: A strong liking or desire for or devotion to some activity, object, or concept.

Assuming you’ve figured out who you are, the next questions to ask yourself are; “What gives me energy?” “When does time stop for me when I’m involved in something that I like doing?” “What sparks me?”

Not sure? Let’s go deeper. Consider the following 3 questions:

1. What subject could I read 500 books about without getting bored?

2. What could I do for five years straight without getting paid?

3. What would I spend my time doing if I had complete financial abundance to do anything?

“Anything that gets your blood racing is probably worth doing.”  – Hunter S. Thompson

Once you’ve answered the above, start to list the jobs or tasks that you absolutely loathe. This way you can easily weed out what you don’t like. It’s far easier in knowing what you don’t like than it is to what you do.

By now you’re gaining further insight into who you are. Your unique qualities. And what you enjoy doing. If, however you need a little more to go by, I encourage you to try to visualize your best day. I didn’t say ‘perfect day’ for a reason. There’s truly no such thing as perfect. The word perfect in fact adds unnecessary pressure. It doesn’t make anything easier.

Research has shown that there’s a strong correlation between what we see and what we do. We stimulate the same brain regions when we visualize an action and when we actually perform that same action.

Imagine then that you see yourself getting up early, jumping out of bed, excited about getting on with your day. The sun is shining, and you take those first steps out of your bedroom. Now work through where you’re going, and what kind of activity/career follows on from that feeling of anticipation.

By looking at who you are and what you were meant to be doing will create your WOW factor. Rest assured this doesn’t happen overnight. It’s a process. Just like behaviour change, it takes practice, trying and experiencing things that get you closer to your WOW.

… And WOW is it ever worth it!