Overlooking Your Progress?
Have you ever thought about how much of your anxiety and stress is caused by the perception that you aren’t making progress? Do you envision your life plugging along, with no real progress? Or worse, do you imagine that it is taking giant slides backwards? This seems to be on many people’s minds right now, especially as the world as we knew it has turned so catawonky.
The feeling of loosing ground can wreck havoc on your psyche.
The fear of loosing control and having no means to manage the events of life can be crippling.
But here’s the truth -
You never really stand still or slide backwards!
It’s just not how life works. Your life, your experience here, is always progressing forward.
If I were to ask you to draw a visual illustration of this, would it look something like the line below, with some highs and lows, with your life progressing left to right, into your Golden Years?
Most people I meet in coaching (and life in general) would draw a similar line.
And they speak about the lows in life as if they’re giant casums, deep pits of darkness.
If your impression is the same, listen up. I’m about to show you something that can greatly improve your life!
Last week, this drawing was shared with me by my own business coach and it instantly stopped a mental spiral I was stepping into around a big, upcoming move.
In short, it helped me immediately recognize the power of progress which, in turn, gave me much more calm and hope.
Life is actually an upward spiral.
There is no such thing as a life that is the same from start to finish, with a few highs and lows. It isn’t possible. From your birth to your youth to your teens to 20s, 30s, 40s and beyond, you are constantly changing, upleveling, learning new things, and becoming someone with greater knowledge and resources. This is your natural evolution.
Why does this matter? Why am I ranting about this serpent line today?
Because it’s a wonderful visual of your growth and progress and…
If you feed this visual to your brain, things magically shift.
When you THINK our life is moving along on a straight plane, your mind forgets how far you’ve come. You lesson the impact of your life lessons (yeah, did that word play intentionally) that add to the latest, greatest (so far) version of you. Further, you fail to have the deep, deserved gratitude for all the deep experiences that led to your 10.0 version.
Thinking of your life as an upward spiral, you can recognize that you, facing similar circumstances that once took you sideways/down/out, won’t have the same impact on you today. The today you, with her wisdom and knowledge, just won’t make the same mistakes again. She’s more intelligent and experienced. The 10.0 version of you was given so many rich blessings (some hidden in tough life lessons, yes) from which to excel upward!
And a quick note on the tough times -
During those valleys, the slumps, if you’re willing to ask for help, it’s amazing how much lower the slump can be and how much more quickly you can find yourself on higher ground! I hope you’ll take that in, especially all my female friends out there. Women tend to not ask for help when they could really use it. (If you’re a Giver, I’m talking to you!)
Will you continue to flat line or climb and soar?