CAUTION — Objects in Mirror May Appear Larger Than They Are
We’ve all been there at one time or another. Life has thrown us big changes, sometimes devastating ones. There we are, cruising down the highway of life with the top down, sun shining brightly, and wind blowing through our hair. Everything is perfect. We know what our future looks like, we know where we’ve been and we are content.
Then Life, the Universe, God, Fate — whatever it is for you — tosses a 10-ton boulder in your way and everything comes to a screeching halt.
Maybe it is the death of a loved one or family member, the loss of a job, loss of what you thought was a solid “forever” relationship, or unforeseen financial troubles. Or maybe it’s all of those. Whatever it is that halts you, it makes you feel paralyzed. It’s a surreal moment in which you realize that the life you knew you were living has been forever altered and you don’t know what it will look like going forward. You can’t go back — the past is the past — and you can’t see where you need to go to move forward in the face of devastating loss. You truly are back at square one and your GPS isn’t programmed for whatever comes next.
So, how do you find your way? How do you load a new map into the GPS of your life? How do you find that joy again?
The good news is that you’re not really back at ground zero. It may seem like it and it may feel like you are right back at the beginning again, but the truth is you still have yourself, which means you also have your creativity and ingenuity. You still possess all of your life experiences, talents, learned skills, friends — everything that has allowed you to be you up to this point. You’ve just been interrupted.
I want to introduce you to the JUMPstart tool that can help you negotiate the roadblocks in your life and get you to the path on the other side. As you start to move forward again, all those huge losses in the mirror of your old life will begin to look smaller.
I am going to give you three practices that will give you an immediate boost toward overcoming those roadblocks and connect you to a plan to move beyond them.
These practices are part of a larger toolset, but they are invaluable for getting started on your path back to joy.
These daily power boosts will keep you centered when you are feeling anxious, frustrated, or even resigned. They will help you renew your focus on doing the things that will take you where you want to go based on what you REALLY want.
- Practice 1: If it’s not elevating you, just let it go.
Let go of thoughts, patterns, resentments and habits that are not elevating the outcomes in your life. Most high-performers have a tendency to be very hard on themselves and, in fact, that tendency is a main driver behind their successes. We have discovered that, often, a negative thought plus being hard on ourselves equals a decent result. However, a positive thought plus an intention produces extraordinary outcomes. The key is to be able to interrupt those negative thoughts, let them go, and replace them with positive messages that will get you the results you want and beyond.
- Practice 2: Stay out of your head. It’s dark in there.
Here are the mechanics of how this works. There is an automatic reaction when we obsess about something and play a scenario over and over in our heads. We will always imagine the worst case. Left in our heads, those negative thoughts and projections collect and snowball. When we begin to speak those thoughts to others around us in dialog and are willing to consider other points of view, we create a sort of relief valve for our mind. Bottom line: Stop flying solo and include others in conversation.
- Contribute and let others contribute to you.
We are all very good at giving. Most of us fall all over ourselves to share what we think, give advice, and help people out. The problem is that style of giving is usually a one-way street. For the most part we walk around spewing our ideas or perspectives at other people and think of it as giving or contributing. But we fall short when allowing others to contribute to us. We don’t actually allow the efforts of others to sink in and make a difference for us. The days of only giving are done. In today’s world, survival, success, and high-performance all demand real collaboration and attention to the contributions all of us make to the whole. Working together is the only way to climb above it all and navigate a new path. That begins with giving up our attachments to what we have to offer and giving credence to what others do. Said another way, the biggest contribution we can make to others is letting them contribute to us and be heard.
Just try on these practices or even just play with one of them. You will begin to get a bit of space in which you can see what you really want in life. Keep practicing and a completely new life and future will begin to emerge.
If these 3 practical steps helped you to discover something new about yourself and feel just a bit more free from your past, I invite you to join me for my half-day intensive JUMPstart program where you will begin to uncover new aspects of yourself, create your new GPS map and begin moving forward toward having what you really want.
For more information on the JUMPstart Program and to register go to: https://www.thejoyactivationprocess.com/enroll
