Last week’s message Get Inspired with Music! emphasized two themes:
- The need for celebration
- The acknowledgement that things don’t always go as planned
In my work with clients, I encourage them to find a way to celebrate successes. Hard work, diligence and persistence reward us with results. Acknowledge your role in making it happen with a celebration. The magnitude of the celebration doesn’t matter; what matters is allowing yourself to savor the moment and recharge. If you are like most of my clients, celebration is soon followed by “What’s next?”
What is next for you as we roll into the second half of 2014? Where are you in your goals that you established at year-end? What new initiatives or habits have served you well? Which ones have yet to pay off? What have you learned? What needs to happen between now and year-end to make annual goals a reality?
If you are feeling derailed in your progress, NOW is a great time to recalibrate. Answering the questions above will move you in the right direction. You may also need to shift your mindset about how quickly progress happens.
Much of what we are exposed to on a daily basis promulgates the idea that progress is easy and evident. “Three Quick Steps to Social Media Mastery” or “6 Weeks to a Referral-Only Business.” Tune in to a reality TV show and the project, renovation or total body makeover transpires in an hour! Yes, some of the shows take a whole season to culminate; yet the point is most don’t show the real work it takes to produce results.
Progress is slow, often times mundane and can be difficult to see or measure. So we stop doing what we are doing as the results just aren’t there. To recalibrate we must take a closer look: “Is what I am doing not working or will it just take longer than I thought?”
As a business owner, employee or frankly for anyone, it is difficult to determine if something is not working or if simply more time, energy and resources are needed to make it happen. Emotional attachments are formed when we set meaningful goals. This attachment makes it hard to evaluate progress objectively. Working with an outside party, such as a coach, can bring the objectivity, tough questions and reality check needed to evaluate progress.
Are you feeling stuck? Then let’s visit and see if a Strategy Session is a fit for you.