Inform Yourself

How certain are you about where you are headed personally, professionally, or both? What is your plan for getting you there? If you are like most people, your best laid plans have been severely impacted by the current economic conditions in which the world finds itself right now.

So what have you done about it? If you are like most people, you have done nothing except absorb and internalize the negative messages you are bombarded with on a daily basis. This has led the majority of people to become both personally and professionally stagnant. They are no longer focusing on their long term goals and their plan to get there and are instead focusing on day to day survival. When one goes into a state of survival they typically become very short sighted. This short sightedness leads to ineffective decision making. Ineffective decision making leads to uncertainty. Uncertainty generates the fear the vast majority of the population is now experiencing. Fear leads to stagnation. It is safe to say the majority of the population around the world has done little if anything to combat this downward spiral into stagnation.

So why haven’t they done anything to stop or better yet reverse this trend? The reason is simple, they don’t realize they are in the spiral until they hit bottom. They recognize they have hit bottom when their uncertainty hits them like a lightning bolt or a bus as they try and cross the street. They lie awake at night fretting about everything, their stress levels get so high they begin to experience the physical effects, they become more irritable, they no longer smile, they hear themselves constantly complaining about everyone and everything. To put it another way, they wake up one day and they realize they do not enjoy who they have become. They are no longer enjoying life at all!

So what do they do next? When people realize they are at or close to the bottom they have two options. They can do nothing and remain exactly where they are at or they can make a conscious decision to change. This is what they vast majority of the population will do. The second option is to make a conscious decision to change what they hear and how they hear it, the way they are thinking, and how they are operating. They can choose to do this regardless of the environment around them! Their decision to act now gives them the certainty they need to take action!

In order to succeed they must return to focusing on the larger picture. This enables them to determine if their long range goals are still desirable. If not, they redefine them. They also look at their plan to achieve their long term goals and determine if they need to modify their plan. Once they have done this, they can then get back to ensuring they are doing what they need to do to achieve their goals, not someone else’s! These actions now give them the confidence they need to keep moving. Their movement creates even more confidence and certainty they will achieve their goals and get the live life the way they want. Those who take action will succeed.
So I ask you again, how certain are you about where you are headed personally, professionally, or both? Where are you right now? Are you spiraling or are you at the bottom? Are you standing still or are you moving?

I invite you to share your thoughts, comments, and experiences by leaving comments about this post.