Transforming to Succeed
“I have always believed, and I still believe, that whatever good or bad fortune may come our way we can always give it meaning and transform it into something of value.”
Last week we talked about being able to look at ourselves and notice what we have the power to change that would improve our prospects in moving toward our goals. This is definitely not the easiest thing to do! We’re likely to struggle with various emotions in the process, because no one likes confronting their own limitations. Also, the idea of change, of tackling what we may have found and working toward new skills, can be challenging and scary. And yet this is exactly what we need to be doing all the time if we want to grow into the kind of people who can succeed in a changing landscape—which is what life will always present, whether you’re a hermit or a big-city dweller.
Once you know what you need to change, I recommend first setting your focus on what you really want and why, and find ways to think about this often. Every day you will need to refresh your motivation, particularly when your endeavors require struggle and persistence—and in the process of change, this may be nearly every day! You might want to make yourself little notes or display pictures that you find inspiring. Maybe you’ll make a playlist of music that buoys you and reminds you what all your work is for. Change takes focus and grit, but you’re allowed to have fun while you’re working at it! Make sure you’re finding ways to keep your purpose alive and remind yourself what it’s all about.
You’ll then need a roadmap that shows you your path to your goal so you can see what you need to do, and in what order. Important: Right from the start, accept that this will be a living document, and you will add to and edit it as circumstances change and as you learn experientially. If you add time-related goals to your map, know that those can and sometimes must change. They’re meant to challenge and draw us forward, not tyrannize us. Too many of us have become demoralized by the idea of setting goals at all because not meeting a deadline can feel like failure, and that’s a very hot button for many of us. Overreactions to our perceptions of failure are common, and yet destructive to our learning and growth in profound ways. The truth is that when things don’t go as planned, there’s almost always something to learn that will help you as you continue toward your destination, and if we lose sight of this, me may quit. If you really want that goal and you keep managing your energy and your outlook, you will return over and over to the plan with a willingness to evolve it and yourself as you go. No one is ever perfect, even those who succeed wildly! We’re all human, and trying to hold yourself to impossible standards that include never making mistakes is not helpful.
The last part of this process I want to mention is attention to your physical and emotional well being. If you don’t eat enough nutrient-rich food, move and stretch your body, and get enough sleep to help your body regenerate, you’ll most likely burn yourself out before you can accomplish anything meaningful, and never be able to sustain the prolonged activity that the pursuit of most goals requires. If you don’t manage your emotions, you will be fighting the chaos of bad moods and demotivating thoughts, which will seriously cut into your productivity. You’ll also be missing out on the priceless information that your emotions are trying to convey about how you may be getting off track from your own values and truest desires, as well as about parts of you that may need attention before your subconscious mind will get on board with your success. And trust me, your subconscious is powerful! If it’s not on board with your plan, it will find ways to sabotage that will be both highly effective and most likely invisible to you so that you have little chance of countering them. Sure, you can vilify and stuff down your emotions because it’s what you know, and learning new skills takes time and effort, but if you take a little time to learn an alternative method of operating, you’ll be able to benefit from much smoother sailing for a lifetime. Doesn’t that sound better? I have found that learning some powerful emotional management tools can revolutionize our experience of day-to-day life for the better.
As you probably know already, I recommend Tapping as one of the most highly effective and useful tools for emotional, mental, spiritual, and physical transformation. It’s incredibly supportive in working through road blocks all along the way, whatever it is you may struggle with. If you’ve forgotten how to use Tapping, you can find a couple of quick videos on the subject here. It doesn’t take long to start getting the benefits, so get going or brush up, and I think you’ll find that it really helps!