Do you ever wonder what’s keeping you stuck?
Imagine you wanted to go to the grocery store.
You hop into your car, and using your rear view mirror, you back your car out of your garage, down the driveway and onto the street.
Then you put the car in drive, but kept your eyes firmly fixed on your rearview mirror.
How successful would you be in making it to the store?
Of course we wouldn’t do that, we wouldn’t even try! Imagine the damage we could do without looking at the road ahead?
Yet we do this all the time when we spend our lives, focused on the past.
The same attitudes, feelings, patterns, and beliefs on autoplay, -lived over and over again.
New opportunities for growth, gone completely unseen.
Imagine being defined by your worst mistake.- for the rest of your life.
The thought is intolerable. Yet we do this to ourselves and those we love all of the time.
We see them through tainted lenses of the past, rather than the optimistic lenses of the future.
Sometimes we’re even pining for the past, and trying to relive those glory days, because we don’t believe in our ability to create the same success again. (Anyone know an athlete who still lives in his senior year? It’s totally a thing.)
We recently spent a little time with some of our old friends from college. Boy have they changed! Time and life does that, and that growth is a beautiful thing. Imagine if we were stuck seeing each other with our college eyes forever, it would be such a shame.
It’s so interesting to me when working with my clients, I will ask them, “If you could create the perfect relationship for yourself, what would it look like?”
Most of the time, they will tell me what they don’t want. They’ll say things like, “I don’t want to argue, I don’t want to resent him anymore, I don’t want…..”
It’s much easier for them to identify what they don’t want than create the vision of what they do.
But here’s the thing, it’s impossible to hit a target if we don’t know where the target is! We just keep hucking darts into the great abyss.
It’s still January, and if you feel like this is something you struggle with, I’d like to help you to shift your focus and fix your eyes on the road ahead.
One simple tool to help you do this is to select your word of the year.
Along with setting goals, your word is a gentle, daily reminder of who you intend to be, how you want to live, and what you’d like to accomplish or become this year.
This word should inspire and guide you. It will help you refocus when you lose sight of your goals.
Choose a word that speaks to your inner being and calls you forward.
Once you’ve chosen it, print it out and put it where you can see it each day, perhaps on your mirror, the refrigerator, or at your desk.
I have some big goals this year. The growth that will be required for me to accomplish them will stretch me. I’m up for it. I know that discomfort is the currency for getting what I want.
My word for the year is, become.
Take some time and do this for yourself.
Fix your eyes on the road ahead.
We get one life, let’s use this opportunity to make it magnificent!
Commit today to look forward, and leave the past behind, where it belongs.