Where is it, where is it…?
I’ve come to completely believe that you generally find what you look for and, as a result, you generally get what you expect to get. This perspective is incredibly powerful, because it puts control of your experiences in your hands – even when you’re dealing with less-than-ideal external circumstances.
Success, whether in business or life in general, is not solely a matter of being on your “A” game mentally. To create the results you want, you get to take action on your empowering thoughts. What does this look like in real life?
Do the necessary work and have faith that you are making progress, even – or especially – if you “just don’t see it.”
My accountability buddy in Kenya (And is that totally cool, or what?) was commenting one day that she felt stuck, like she wasn’t making any progress in moving from Point A to Point B. After some discussion, she committed to reviewing her goals to see if that would re-charge her energy.
As it turned out, her review did more than re-charge her. It also made clear to her that she had already achieved one of those goals and had simply failed to acknowledge it.
When she got done shaking her head over that, she realized that she had been making progress – and not just on that one goal – by taking baby steps on a consistent basis. That realization led to another interesting discussion in which we mutually identified another important life-and-work lesson.
Choose a perspective that will make it easy to see your successes.
Linda had been unconsciously thinking her progress “should” be straight-line and rapid; after all, Point A is right next door to Point B, isn’t it?
Uh, no. Not really.
If you don’t identify and honor all the baby steps required to achieve any given goal, you run the risk of beating up on yourself and becoming discouraged because you tell yourself you’re just not making progress.
It’s so much kinder — and more effective — to choose to view the route from where you are to where you want to be in terms of “I’m at Point A, and I’m moving to Point Z.” This perspective implicitly acknowledges that you’re not going to get to your destination in a single giant stride, but that you will get there by taking as many baby steps as necessary. And that’s okay.
If you expect to find lessons everywhere, that’s where you’ll find them.
One of the joys of choosing to be a lifelong learner is that you never run out of new things to learn – or ways to learn them.
One day, I was doing dishes while finishing a video by the French YouTuber who’s helping me improve my listening skills. Because my mental filter was set to allow in anything that met the criterion “improve Kath’s French,” I consciously noticed a recommended video about “the importance of making mistakes to learn French.”
Imagine my joy when the man presenting the information spoke at a moderate pace and shared a message I think he intended especially for me! I not only got some ear training in; I got an extra helping of brain training, too.
If, in any given situation, you ask yourself, “What is here that has value for me?”, you will find something you can act on.
What are some of the most gratifying results you’ve gotten by marrying thought to action?
If you’re having a hard time coming up with anything, chances are good that you’re one of those people who are WAY too hard on themselves, and it’s time to invite your kinder, gentler self to come out and play.
One way to extend that invitation is to apply the tools found in my cheat sheet, You to the Power of WOW! If you’d like a copy of this no-charge resource, just email me with “I want to WOW myself!” in the subject line, and I’ll send it right to you.
And if you realize you’re resistant to clicking on the link, that makes it a great time to ask yourself, “What lesson is there for me in this resistance?” ☺ ☺ ☺
(By the way, thanks to Peter for posting his binoculars image in the Creative Commons section of Flickr.)
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