Loyalty

 At IMS we follow three guiding principles in everything we do: Loyalty, Selflessness, and Love. In that order. And loyalty isn’t just arbitrarily in the number one spot. It’s there for a reason. I often have people ask me, Joey, why loyalty first? All the work we do is centered in love, we train to have access to a love-based state, why wouldn’t love come first? The simple answer is because we have control over one and not the other. Of course we want to operate inside the love-based state a majority of the time, and we can train to do that, but we can never completely control our nervous system. There are going to be times when the sympathetic nervous response is triggered and there’s not a thing you can do about it.

You and Janice are thick as thieves at work. You make a great team, and together you’ve been knocking it out of the park. But boy, there are times when Janice can really get under your skin. If your working relationship was entirely dependent upon your feelings of love for Janice, you never would have made it this far. Because after the third time Janice came up with one of her nutty ideas that you know will never work, you would have walked. Why put up with the aggravation? Sadly, this is the reality for many people. They’re unable to sustain forward movement, in any aspect of their lives, because as soon as those bad feelings get triggered, anger, frustration, anxiety, they throw in the towel.

So what keeps you and Janice solid even through the rough times? It’s loyalty. Not just loyalty to the work and what you're building together, although that’s certainly part of it, but loyalty to Janice herself. It’s your commitment to her as a human being, to have her back, to understand that there are going to be times when you can’t stand the sight of each other but you’ll never walk away. It’s loyalty that fills the gaps when our love reserves are running low.

The same applies to every aspect of your life. If you’re working on the space of health and vitality, loyalty is key. You might be thinking, okay Joey, who am I being loyal to? My personal trainer? My nutritionist? No silly, it’s being loyal to you. Loyal to your routine. Loyal to your vision of optimal health. Loyalty is what gets you through those days when you can hear the cookies whispering to you from the pantry or when you’d rather do a stint in prison than spend another hour in the gym. I don’t care how passionate, how enthusiastic you are, there are going to be days when it’s a real challenge to get into gear. But when you’re being guided by a principle of loyalty, you’ll continue to drive forward even when you’re ready to throw in the towel. And keep this in mind, if you can’t be loyal to yourself, how can you ever be loyal to another human being?

I shouldn’t have to mention loyalty and marriage in the same sentence but for many people relationships fall apart because there’s no loyalty. In a marriage loyalty is the bedrock of the relationship. Every marriage, every long term romantic relationship for that matter, seems to take on a life of its own. And I don’t care how intensely passionate your love for each other may be, there are going to be times when you just want to wring their neck and hope you don’t end up on an episode of Dateline. It’s loyalty that stops you from committing a heinous crime (and also that you’re not a sociopathic maniac). It’s loyalty, that’s not only based in love, but respect, compassion, and empathy, that empowers you to say, Hey, I’m not feeling a lot of love at the moment but I’ve got my person’s back, I’m not giving up, this feeling will pass.

Love and selflessness are the principles that drive us, but it’s loyalty that provides the fuel. It’s what carries us through the rough patches. Hey, I’ve been doing this work for a couple of decades now, and I’m pretty darn good at it, but I’d be a liar if I said I never wake up some mornings and think, Really? This again? And it’s loyalty that keeps me going. There have been times when people on my team have given up on the vision. Just walked away. But I’m not going to let that stop me from driving forward. They’ve decided to opt out, so it’s good luck to them but they’re not my responsibility anymore. I’ve still got my loyalty to the rest of the team, to my clients, to you.

And hey, sometimes being loyal means you’re going to lose. Maybe it’s nothing huge, like say, you’ve planned, booked, and paid for ten days in Hawaii with your best friend and two days before the trip your friend lets you know that they’re going to divorce their spouse. As a loyal friend you know your ten days in paradise are now going to be dominated by the tornado of your friend’s emotions. It’s certainly not the end of the world, I mean you’re still going to be in Hawaii. But because of your loyalty, you’re not going to cancel the trip or ditch them in the hotel room to wallow while you go out on your own. And as a result, the relationship with your friend is only going to be stronger.

But other times you might lose big. Maybe you’ve spent years building a business with a partner. You were in it together 100% right from jump. You thought they were fully committed to the vision, all the blood, sweat and tears. Then one day they tell you they’re out. They’re just not into it anymore. It’s devastating. But what to do? Are you going to walk away too? Let all that work just spiral down the drain? Absolutely not. It’s your loyalty to that original vision that will carry you through. It might be hard, it’s probably going to be painful for a minute, but your commitment, your loyalty is what will keep the vision alive.

This is why, here at IMS, loyalty is number one on our list of guiding principles. Our vision as an organization is to eliminate suffering as efficiently as possible, and give people access to lives better than they imagined possible. In order to realize that vision, loyalty must come first. And not just loyalty to the vision, but loyalty to every individual who chooses to join us on the journey. Our Certified Trainers are committed to training, guiding, and supporting you through every step of creating and fulfilling your own vision for the life you want to create.

For some people loyalty comes naturally. It’s a personality trait, something that’s just in their DNA. But all of us are certainly capable of being loyal, it might just take some conscious effort to develop it, to train it until it’s a way of being. That’s what we’re here for. Our Power Series is designed to teach you how to name your guiding principles and then use them to fulfill your vision for the life you want to lead. If you’re already engaged with our Power Series, maybe you’ve been training for awhile now, and you’re ready to take it to the next level, our Apprentice Program might be a good fit for you. Take the tools, techniques, and strategies that you’ve learned and pay them forward!

Click HERE to learn more about the Power Series, or HERE to learn about the Apprentice Program.