Everything You Measure Keeps You Stuck
“Follow your heart.”
My mother told me this constantly growing up. It felt like a cliché. I didn’t know what it meant.
Except I did. Somewhere deep down, I knew.
The problem was — she never taught me HOW. And that’s where we all get stuck.
Instead, I was taught to trust my brain. Get educated. Make logical decisions. Pros/cons lists. Measure success by money, titles, possessions. Figure out if I was ahead or behind -- by comparing myself to others.
My brain became a measuring instrument. And I got very good at using it.
Is my house as big as my neighbor’s? Do I have as nice a car? And if not—what does that say about me?
That measurement may have been useful for some things…problem-solving. Strategy creation. Deductive reasoning.
But it never gave me fulfillment. Or meaning. Or energy.
Because our brain doesn’t create. It doesn’t inspire.
That’s the job of the heart.
Your heart interprets and channels energy. When you feel joy, when you feel love, when you feel sorrow -- you feel it in your heart. Neal Donald Walsch correctly described emotion as “Energy in Motion”. And that energy is channeled through the heart.
We’re taught that our brains drive success. The more educated we become, the more we earn. Better jobs. Promotions. Status based on which school we attended.
But we’re rarely taught to develop our hearts. We don’t learn how to listen to them. We don’t value the richness our hearts bring to our human experience. In fact — we are mostly taught to withhold emotions. To keep them subdued.
Heart opening and expansion is left to religion or family. Both of which have been steadily losing structure and potency over the last 50 years.
It’s no wonder there’s so much animosity and outrage in our world today. So much division.
We aren’t developing our most important asset for peace, love, and understanding: our hearts.
Of course we’re broken. Of course we’re hurting.
We need our hearts more than ever.
So how do we listen to our hearts?
Get quiet. We need to do what so few of us do: slow down. Stop. Get quiet. Listen.
Meditation. Daydreaming. Journaling. Prayer.
It isn’t scrolling. Working 15-hour days. Stacking our schedules with obligations.
The value of downtime is vastly underestimated.
Ask better questions. Questions that force you to think beyond the measurement game.
What would I do if money were no object?
How would people remember me if today were my last day?
What energizes me when I do it—or even just think about it?
If I had everything I needed, how would I give to the world?
Create a vision.
What kind of future are you creating—for yourself, your family, the world?
What does fulfillment actually feel like to you?
This is the true work of our lives. Listening to our hearts. Finding answers to these questions. Getting to know who we are underneath all the noise.
Once we know this, our brain becomes the perfect tool to help us achieve it.
But it has to originate from the heart.
And we just aren’t spending enough time there.
Hello,
I am Kurt Schliemann
I’m the Founder of Intention
After years of chasing money and what I thought to be “success”, I hit a wall – achievement without alignment. It took me a decade, but I eventually got aligned behind my Living Vision. Discovering the work of George Kinder and David Bayer changed everything.
Now, I help my clients experience that same transformation – leading with alignment and intention, to create the authentic and fulfilling life that inspires and energizes them.