ABSTRACT: Much discussion arises around whether the head or the heart should rule us. Each has strengths and weakness. I propose learning to build on the strengths of both and developing a balanced approach that relies on both contributors.

Have you ever found yourself completely focused on an outcome with your mind working overtime, thoughts flooding the scene, but you just cannot engage your creativity? Or have you experienced a torrent of feeling that overwhelms and disorients, feels like a river in flood seeking to sweep you away, and prevents your focusing on and achieving anything truly productive?

Inability to access our heart with our head ruling all we do robs us of the feeling, life, passion and energy necessary to tap in on and manifest our potential. It could be likened to a hard, immovable container that establishes boundaries, imposes limitations, has lots of usefulness, but no reason for being used. A mind that cannot engage the heart is focused at ground level, can be amazingly busy, even successful in a limited fashion, but it can never soar. Many people focus on today, work to survive yet another day of crisis but never get out of or beyond the tedium of what life throws at them.

Heart rules in a different way. It bubbles and swells inside and gushes everywhere. On its own it is like a lava flow, hot, overwhelming, unconfined and destroying all form and structure it encounters. To be ruled by the heart is to act impulsively, throw ourselves into whatever ideas our heart conjures up and, in the extreme, leaves us without substance or tangible result.

Neither the head nor the heart should rule! Both have strengths and both bring power to the person you are. Either of them as your predominant ruling authority has significant weakness. For effectiveness as an individual, the head (thinking self) and the heart (feeling/emotional self) must rule together. There needs to be a symbiotic relationship between them. If either one seeks to usurp the other, effectiveness declines. Consider the head as a container that provides structure, form and focus, and the heart as fruit that offers life, energy and passion. The container ensures the fruit is available and may be accessed as and when required, and that it will not run (or roll) away and get damaged or bruised. The fruit provides a purpose for the container beyond being merely ornamental, and ensures there is life and substance. Together, head and heart, the bowl and the fruit, there is purpose, direction, passion and POWER!

What gets in the way of you manifesting your full power? Are you a head person, a heart person, or have you achieved that powerful balance of head and heart? Does one rule you with the other considered the enemy, some foreign, alien entity that causes discomfort, or at least something to ignore as an unnecessary distraction? What are you prepared to do to truly tap in on and manifest your passion, potential, and your personal power? Do you have the courage to confront the part of yourself that causes you discomfort so you can be whole and effective in all you do?

Live with passion, manifest your creative energies, be true to yourself and achieve your potential! Are you achieving all you could?

Stephen Harrison, PMP
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