Have you ever had a great plan, but you just can’t seem to make it happen? You really love the idea, but you’re not making progress. So you start to think you’re a procrastinator. Or that you lack ambition, motivation, skills. Worthiness.
Before you blame yourself, read this story. It might be something else entirely.
To move from where we are to somewhere new, there are only two driving forces:
1. The pain of where we are is strong enough that we need to move away
2. Where we want to be is so amazing that we are willing to go through the discomfort of change to get there.
Often it’s a combination of the two.
I had this client who said
“I’m not doing the thing I decided to do. There must be something wrong with me”.
So we investigated, got real, dealt with all the saboteurs that get in the way of clarity.
They still weren’t doing it.
Had we failed? Had I failed? I thought so, until I remembered that the key to any action is motivation.
The answer was clear: they don’t actually want to do this thing.
No matter how much you say you want something, if you don’t take any action to make if happen, you probably don’t actually want it.
Sound familiar?
Whatever you’ve been telling yourself to do, let it go already. If you haven’t done it by now, you probably won’t.
Let it go and create room for new things that you’re actually excited about.
Like that client of mine. They weren’t taking action on their awesome idea because although it was an awesome idea, it wasn’t something they actually wanted.
Great. What a vital AHA! moment.
They let go of an idea they’ve been holding onto for years. It’s an amazing idea. I know they would be most excellent at it. Totally knock it out of the park.
But they don’t actually want it. So they said goodbye to that plan.
Instead of flogging themselves into doing something they didn’t want, they had room to come up with a plan of what they DO want, not what they’re “supposed to do”.
Leaving the call they were excited about the new plan. The one that lit them up like the northern lights. The one where they were excited about taking action and couldn’t wait, even though it was a bit scary.
“I can’t believe I got here today. I didn’t think it was possible. Thank you for bringing this out of me”.
We didn’t end up following the original plan so that definitely failed. But they got something so much better: something they actually wanted. Priceless.
If you’re stuck with your plan and it’s not progressing, let’s have a call to look at where you are and where you’d actually like to be so that you can feel excited about your plans again and take action.
This post is part of my special Coaching Tips Series. This series was inspired by my clients and the core themes in their challenges. When we can apply these tips, we bring a lot of ease into our lives and step into our leadership. Want to talk it through with me? Call me and let’s make a Game Plan together.