Ever have a day when everything seems to go wrong? Whatever you try, just doesn’t seem to work out no matter how much effort you put in? In fact, the more you work at it, the worse things become!!
Days like that are precisely when you need to step back and let go. These types of days are really important to take a moment and just be.
When you step back and become more thoughtful about the events and what they mean to you, you begin to discover more about yourself. You start to see beliefs and assumptions that limit your thinking, limit your ability to achieve what you desire.
I discovered this years ago when I was involved with corporate downsizing. In one of the larger layoffs I was involved in, I worked with a number of people who were losing their job and had nothing else to replace the lost income. It was a very challenging situation when they had financial commitments like kids in school, mortgages, etc. Without exception, everyone was devastated.
A fascinating result showed up roughly a year later. Several of the people who had been let go reached out to thank me. They discovered, through the challenge of the downsizing, there were better options for them. Without the kick out the door, they wouldn’t have made the changes. They were comfortable with their ‘routine’ or lifestyle to go out on a limb and pursue what they truly wanted.
The difficulties they faced with the loss of their job, suddenly motivated them to reconsider their options. Many of their assumptions up to that point were based on old beliefs.
In You Can Choose, we have a chapter called the Handbook on Life. In it, we talk about beliefs acting like rules. Sometimes those rules need to be revisited to see if they still make sense.
Next time you have one of those days where nothing seems to work, stop, take a moment and look at some of the beliefs driving your behaviors. Do they still make sense to you?
