Are you a turtle?

I’ll  bet you $100 that I can tell you right now what is preventing you from making the changes in your life that will bring you loads more joy. 

Do YOU know what it is? 

Ready? …

Your “familiar zone.”

Yep. Whatever is your known way of being is getting in your way of becoming your new, even better way of being. 

Here’s how it works in short. 

As humans, we’re wired to spend the better part of our lives being attracted to and repeating again and again that which is familiar - even when we know better. 

Have you experienced this? 

Despite your desire and vision for a better way, the odds are stacked against you. You aren’t likely to take the steps needed to make real change, at least not unless you become keenly aware of your familiar patterns and decide to methodically eliminate them. 

Our brains recognize familiar as safe, even when it’s not. 

Research shows that abuse victims tend to choose their abuser over a caring stranger because of this fierce sense of ‘loyalty’ of sorts to that which is known. 

That’s some nasty wiring, right?!

The last thing you most likely want to do is make a change.

Change leads to disruption of your comfort zone - which creates fear.  It’s natural.

To make matters worse, you have some hidden programming that will take you directly back to a time when you were young and took a risk and it didn’t work out the way you had hoped.

Your familiar will forever tell you that taking steps in the direction of change, boldness, the ‘unknown’ will likely be devastating.

For example, maybe you spoke up in grade school and got teased.  “Know-it-all!!” “Show off!” They geared.  So you began to believe that speaking up wasn’t safe. 

If you grew up in an unstable household, you might have a familiar that begs of you to be perfect in order not to be criticized. Keeping your standards high kept you from getting scolded. The problem is, it’s impossible to constantly maintain those exceptional standards in all areas of life for the rest of your life.. This kind of familiarity often causes compulsion and health problems.  

The fear is real and it feels like a genuine threat to your very life. 

Until you recall the origins of this programming, acknowledge it for why it was important to you THEN, and decide NOW that it’s no longer of value, the fear pattern repeats on autopilot.

With a client today, we were discussing this same principle. She shared that she felt so ‘out of control’ when these childhood feelings flooded in. 

So I gave her this little analogy to play with. 

Imagine a turtle on its back. It’s been there a while and finally realizes he’s not terribly comfortable with this position.

He decides to make his move.  His little feet begin flailing as the little guy desperately tries to right itself. 

“This is you,” I told my client. Your subconscious knows that you’re trapped in this helpless pattern and it wants this to end.”

Before you can move forward, you have to decide to right yourself, to push against the familiar and get in a position that allows you to get grounded and to access your power.

We’ve done this work in other sessions, so she smiled and got the point. I left the session feeling confident she had been taught the tools to empower herself. “You got this!” I reminded her.

If you are feeling like that turtle, ask yourself how much longer you will allow yourself to be so compromised. 

Then begin the journey you were meant to have, slow and steady. 

While I could make lots of metaphors here about ‘coming out of your shell’ and ‘sticking out your neck for what matters’, I’ll leave it at this:

Don’t wait till you’ve lived a turtle’s lifetime to get on track with the career, the life you desire. Reach out HERE for the kind of help that has proven effective for more than a thousand others who said “YES” to themselves and left their old, familiar (and destructive) programming in the dust. 

Till next time -

Wishing you the courage to take the road less familiar! 

Sara Loos

Sara Loos is certified Results & Impact coach and author who is helps women worldwide turn burnout into advancement energy so that they get the job, raise, relationship, results they truly desire.

https://www.saraloos.com
Previous
Previous

Your feedback matters!

Next
Next

A Makeover for you!