We have felt a different kind of life during 2020. It has given us the opportunity to realize how important this life is and how we should maximize our time here. In this article, I show you how you can gain clarity and figure your direction out.
Stop everything In order for us to find our meaningful direction, we must stop and drop everything that is keeping our minds busy. When we consume and fill our brains up with information, it keeps the brain from doing his/her real job: to solve the big questions such as “where do I want to go next in my life?” Special tip: Meditating for 5 minutes helps.
Think about your values Once you have taken a pause from loading your brain with irrelevant information (information that doesn’t answer the question), it is time to think about your values. Values: Your personal qualities you choose to embody to guide your actions; the sort of person you want to be; the manner in which you treat yourself and others, and your interaction with the world around us. They provide the general guidelines for conduct.
Think about what makes you happy This is where people get lost and it is my favorite for that same reason. We are conditioned to think about what we don’t want and what is wrong with this world. Don’t believe me? When was the last time you sat down and thought about what is going well in this world or in your life? So! time to focus on what has made you happy in the past and currently. I don’t mean your favorite bowl of spaghetti or cereal. I mean things that you do that make you happy, private and careerwise. The way you behave which makes you feel good about yourself. Identifying this, will help you gain a clearer direction because you will want to bring more of this into your life. Tip: If you can’t answer that question then think of what doesn’t make you happy. But do not stop there. We want to ultimately answer the main question. So use what you don’t like or doesn’t make you happy to then find the opposite of it.
Find out what you are overthinking and stop overthinking things Overthinking causes action paralysis. One way to overcome this challenge is to think of something you want to do and go do it. If your thoughts start to crawl in, tell yourself that they are just assumptions and you will know they are true by taking action and seeing the results. Time to design your steps and what you will need to accomplish them successfully. Also what problems can arise and how to fix those too WITHOUT OVERTHINKING IT.
Identify your limiting beliefs This is extremely important because here is that little voice that tells you “you can’t” and we need to take care of this if we want to move forward. How do we do that? Well, avoiding it doesn’t do the job to be honest but saying thank you for their opinion does help. Acknowledge it as if it was a person and disregard their value because more than likely it is running it’s mouth based on assumptions and not facts. Tip: Write down what you will need to accomplish what you wrote in point 4. Above and think about times in your past where those qualities were present in your life. For one of my clients, she wanted to focus on helping young women who are entrepreneurs but she was running on assumptions that she might be out of her league. Turned out that she had done it in the past and not only that, she had gotten good feedback from her previous clients. Sometimes we forget about those little things and we can use them as force to move forward.
Take action (start small) People talk about taking massive action but that’s not for everyone. Some people need to start in small but consistent steps. I rather have my coaching clients take small but consistent steps than massive action once and then drop the ball. So start small if you need to, it is totally okay to do so.
Learn from your experiences Time to reflect on the process and progress. First step is to take a look at where things are going and what learning we can take from them. What has worked and what has not worked. Then we need to strategize the next game plan and alter the direction based on the research you collected. Facts based not assumptions based. Make an extra note on that.
Repeat it all over again with the new learning The last step is to take your learning and go back to the beginning and repeat it all over again with enthusiasm and with fun. Pain and failure doesn’t necessarily have to hurt or traumatize you in a way that prevents you from taking action. We can also enjoy our pains and lack of success by learning from them. This will make us stronger and prepare us for the next stage. Remember that throughout this process you are applying change management principles. There will be lots of changes and it is important to manage them accordingly sot hat we can get what we want at the end. One last note: Remember the higher you climb, the thinner the air. Therefore we must train those lungs so that they can be ready for the new challenge. Sincerely, Jeury Tavares P&M Coaching Systems PS: If you need any assistance keeping in check and moving forward, just send me a message or join my newsletter. I love sharing tips that have helped my clients and myself.
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