Yesterday's Strategies Won't Solve Today's Problems
Without meaning to, I often find myself cringing out loud at overused phrases that lack a clear definition. Influencers use them as marketing tools. We hear the phrase over and over until we apply it like duct tape to a situation we are tired of finding a solution for.
My last blog talked about the phrase "I'm stuck." It implies you aren’t moving forward and don’t know which steps to take to make progress. I believe you are more likely restless than stuck. Restlessness often appears when your identity has shifted, but your habits, relationships, work, and priorities have not.
Another phrase I hear too often is "I'm broken." Usually, it implies your confidence has taken hit after hit, and failures feel too heavy to rectify.
The feelings that allow you to step into phrases like these are big ones and hard ones to navigate. However, they are also the feelings that indicate you are becoming a new version of yourself.
Your toolbox of outdated coping strategies needs to be reorganized. Here are 3 tools to find and start using again.
Challenge Your Judgment
When you are in a mindset that believes you are broken, you start looking for evidence to prove it. What if instead you assume that something needs your attention? I'm asking you to replace "What's wrong with me?" with "What makes sense?"
Draw two columns in your journal. On the left, list the things you've been criticizing yourself for. On the right, write what makes sense about each one and the strength it may reveal.
Choose Curiosity
Feeling stuck is your mind's way of telling you something needs your attention, but that it doesn't have the words for it. Your reactions, feelings, exhaustion, and restlessness are information for you to process. What if you got curious about what that data was trying to tell you?
Pick one word you've been using to describe yourself (e.g., stuck, overwhelmed, lazy). Write your current definition, then rewrite it to better reflect who you've become.
Create Safety
Now that you've challenged your judgment and become more curious, it's time to pause before acting. Remember the influencers I mentioned above? They want you to buy into their solution quickly. But what if you took the time to sit with ideas instead of deciding your whole future today? Clarity comes when you feel safe.
Finish this sentence three times: "I feel safe enough to move forward when..." Then choose the next right step that feels safe enough to take this week.
Feeling confused is information, and an opportunity to specifically define what has shifted.
If you'd like someone to help you make sense of what you're carrying—and discover the next right step that actually fits who you've become—I'd love to meet you for a Complimentary Clarity Conversation. Schedule it here.
Today is your day, my friend…so make it a good one!
