Is growth all about taking action? It involves planning – sure. But we often tick boxes without giving ourselves time to take it in. Without looking back at what we did, even if it went well, and consciously analyzing our actions. That is a great point when criticism is useful. So today, if you have 5 minutes – give yourself time to reflect. You might experience more growth in moments than you did for a while.
If anything doesn’t go according to plan, what do you do? Do you complain and moan? Do you throw guilt around? Or do you regroup, reassess and replan? It may be easier to give up, but it’s harder to live your whole life without knowing that you’ve given your best. Every. Single. Time.
Have you ever planned for something and you stubbornly wanted that to be it? Plans are a starting point, just as a degree is only the beginning of life-long learning. Plans often lead to stronger ideas and more elaborated processes. It often is that a plan that we hatch and we think of as a masterpiece unleashes our potential. Our potential is unlimited and change is intrinsic to life. So plan today, review tomorrow and then implement it.
Are you a snoozer or a napper? Do you dread morning? It won’t come as a surprise to you that these habits are false friends that entice you with a fun activity only to later realize that it derailed you from your goals. And even more, all these sentiments, conditions and limitations that we put on ourselves are sabotaging the great work we have achieved in the day before. How?
Action requires commitment, discipline, passion and motivation. By indulging in habits that are destructive we break the chain of uplifting qualities that we’ve built the day before, having to redo it all. Neutral attitudes, such as leaving the bed with the first alarm, making yourself a cup of warm water, stretching, reading, exercising, without necessarily being over the moon, allow you to make things happen.
While waking up with a smile might not come naturally for a while, stick to routines you can build by using your environment. Build strong processes and your emotions will follow.
We receive instant gratification fairly easily in the world we live – may it be through social media, new purchases that attract compliments, changes that we make on ourselves which are money dependent and so on.
Working towards a goal can be quite daunting particularly if you don’t have an audience to test it on and receive small words of encouragement. So it has to be something else that motivates you to push through. What I’ve discovered with my own work is receiving a feeling of progress being made.
It’s up to you how you decide to mark progress, but be kind to yourself in the process. A poor quality piece of work is progress. Is the intention and the action of working towards your goal. Having an initial draft or prototype is a major step forward. We find it easier to criticize existing work than to start something from the scratch. The start doesn’t have to be perfect. Remember, you are lying bricks that through persistence can gain shape and give shelter. But you have to start by having the raw materials first.
Are you lingering over the thought of ‘what if’ and ‘what could it be’? Are you having the occasional feeling of guilt regarding decisions that you already made while you are going forward with your decision regardless? Stop.
Our path in life is not pre-designed. Is just as contoured as our thoughts. There are two things that will take us where we want to go:
There are times when two paths can lead to the same destination. Each road we take is a new experience – different landscape, different people that we’ll bump into, different constructs. Would we go down a road half way through and then drive around to take the other street because we’re very curious of what’s the other option like? Unlikely. But if you’re feeling is so strong that give you the power of going through with the change, do it. Otherwise pack it and dispose of it together with all the other possibilities of how your life could have been.
And remember, there is no right decision, there is just the obvious decision given the time and circumstances you live in.
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