There you are, I see you! You’re one of the most decisive and proactive women the world has ever seen. No one could accuse you of laziness (although you sometimes wonder about that yourself). You have a diary full to overflowing and you can churn out the work of 3 people in 3 days with your eyes closed and your hands tied. You’re an achiever. A doer rather than a talker. Head down, surging forward with the same fervour you’ve always had, using those same resources, your smarts, and your seemingly limitless drive and conviction to fuel you on.
Until you don’t
Until you’re stuck. Damn!
There comes a time when even the most action-biased leader feels irremediably stuck. Like me. Today. Right this moment.
Stuckness comes in many shapes and forms each more undesirable than the next, yet we can spend a ridiculous amount of time wallowing in that place:
- The writer’s block – dread of a blank page
- Lethargy, dullness or boredom
- Doubt and second guessing
- Worry about the future
- Avoiding the great gaping black void of ‘I don’t know’
- Spinning wheels in over thinking
- Rabbit in the headlights indecision paralysis – trying to get it right or trying not to get it wrong
- General procrastination and putting off to later
- All of the above
Stuckness – shrinks your world and allll of your available options. It’s indicative that you’re at effect of circumstances and your story about the circumstances rather than at cause as creator of your life. Not a very powerful, energizing or fun place to find yourself. I’m not enjoying it myself right now. Ugh
And how do we dig ourselves in even more, in a vain bid to fix this?
By repeating the same old thinking habits that got us stuck in the first place. Sigh…
- Making ourselves wrong and self-inflicting blame. In other words, wasting our precious time berating ourselves for wasting our precious time. (Angela, you should have this finished by now, what the hell are you playing around at?)
- Searching outside of ourselves for that miraculous piece of information that will help us know what to do to get it right and NOT GET IT WRONG so we can at last move. And that next piece of information could range from anything from a piece of advice to another diploma. (Hmmm. Maybe I should just look at the last video of what my own mentor put out to get this right…Or read another article on Linked In)
There is no power in more knowledge. There is no ‘more’ power outside of yourself.
Your power lies in acting on what you already know. And you already know enough to get started. Enough to take one small step. Enough to start your engine and pull out into the flow. Now.
Whether it’s the ‘wrong’ or ‘right’ action is irrelevant.
Any action is ultimately the right action when you’re stuck for one simple reason – any action will create forward movement. With forward movement you can build momentum and course correct. You can’t course correct anything when you’re still in the parking lot.
Start with what you have. Put yourself in gear and move out into the traffic. You will soon know if you are going the wrong way and what you need to adjust.
Reconnect with your commitment. Put yourself back at cause rather than at effect.
THEN DO. THE. THING. Or any part of the thing
Swiftly execute it now.
As Michael Neil says in one of his great books – Inspiration is 100% sure and 98 % unpredictable, but until you put your foot onto that escalator it won’t start moving.
Take what you already know and act on it. Swiftly. That’s where the results lie. That’s where the excitement is. That’s where you get your power back and reposition yourself at cause in your life. Your power lies in momentum. Not in your head.
Until you make a move, the thing you want to move won’t either. And today here I am taking my own advice – she says as she breathes a long sigh of relief.
The irony of this blog post is that it has taken me 10 days to write. In my stuckness I’ve not been idle. I have ½ written 10 other articles, had meetings, designed programs, coached my backside off and and found 1000 other more important things to do than sit in front of this page and put my thoughts down.
All valid reasons, feelings and excuses. And reasons, feelings and excuses keep us stuck.
And my commitment is to publish my thoughts on leadership every week.
My commitment is to process not perfection.
My commitment is to commitment, not being at effect of the circumstances or my own reasons, feelings or excuses.
My commitment is to modelling integrity and leadership.
My commitment is to my word. I am my word.
And you are too.
While this may never be rated as my most mind-blowingly, brilliantly poignant, award winning piece of writing, it will go down in my own history as the one that got me out of my head, realigned with my commitment and moving towards better, even if that means putting my imaginary worst out there. Because sometimes, that’s what it takes.
That’s good enough.
Excellence, like leadership, is a process and your power is in your momentum.
Remember, you can’t steer a parked car.
See you next week – I’m off to run my hill training.
Sending love to your Wild Spirit,
Angela
