The sensation of falling is the oldest nightmare known to man. The sensation of returning to square one might be just as old and definitely more frustrating. Fewer things are more disheartening than working your tail off to get somewhere, only to realize that you’re going in circles.
Compounding the frustration is how most of us solve the problem by following the exact same routine that got us there to start with. More than 87% of the people I’ve interviewed and worked with experience the personal let down of building toward a goal and then ending up back at square-one. Finally, we can break the cycle and address the potential causes to find out which is breaking us down.
Sometimes there’s an obvious adversity or problem that starts the tailspin. Other times, you’re clueless as to what happened, but you know that you’re right back where you started.
Very similar to the analogy of building on sand, when we grow our lives beyond the capacity of our support structure, we eventually fall. The weight of our progress is too much and the pressure exposes where we are weak.
Developing that strong foundation gives us the strength to build a bigger life and sustain it for the long-term.
Starting at the top of the list of potential causes is lack of vision and awareness. This is the reason I referred to the problem as a sensation. Unless you know exactly where you started and have a clear vision for where you are going, how do you know if you’re back where you started? You don’t.
You might feel like you’re starting over, but might very well be in a brand new place. If you lack vision, you don’t really know what success looks like even if it’s staring you in the face.
Next is purpose and gratitude. These two held the reins for me more than once and guided me right back to the beginning. I knew where I wanted to go and what it looked like, but never established a strong enough reason for being there.
For added effect, I didn’t take the time to appreciate what was right about my life. All I knew was that it wasn’t good enough. I had to have and be more.
The combined absence of purpose and gratitude is like trying to drive a car…with no steering wheel or gas! You can work your tail off trying to get somewhere and nothing happens. You feel like you are coming back to square one, but the truth is, you never left.
A common companion to any of these issues is the gradual disappearance of action. You simply stop doing the things you need to do. You get scared and back off or you lose interest. Regardless, the activity stops.
The other side of the action coin is filling all of your time doing the wrong things. This is one of the main symptoms people treat with time management. Instead of understanding what are the right things to do and why to do them, we manage our time so we can get more of the wrong things into our schedule. Welcome back to square one.
Everything outlined in my first book, Flip the SWITCH, gives us a formula, or series of steps that reveal the weak spots and make us stronger. They’ve been called revolutionary even though I call them practical. Regardless, you can get a copy of it by going here.
Once you have it, follow the steps and the issue of falling back goes away.
Be your best,
PJ
{ 0 comments… add one now }