Mindset. Excuses. Beliefs. Old Stories. Perspective….and the list goes on. We know our mind plays a big role in our success and our lack of. Every biography on great business leaders talks about their ability to master their thoughts. So why do we let them control us? During my career and building my big idea many times I felt stuck, unfocused and some times just down right lost in knowing what I should do or which direction I should turn. To solve this I usually retreated into my mind and agonized over how “I” was going to unravel my confusion.
If you’re anything like me, in my quest to get “unstuck” and create my big idea I bought every book or program on success, leadership, manifesting, spirituality and countless “cure alls” I could find to help me gain a clear understanding on how to “unblock” my mind and become unstuck. However, most of the time I briefly got inspired but not completely cleared from whatever “blocked” my vision & actions.
You may be in one of those times when you feel blocked from creating your true dream, business or destiny. You’re not alone. No one going after a big dream has ever avoided this phenomenon.
So what do you do when you need to get your mind cleared–and fast? Yes, it helps to take breaks, journal, go on walks, meditate and talk to others but I found something that really helped me get cleared immediately.
There are two insights that help me when I’m stuck (and I still do get stuck):
1. Stay the Same or Grow: Your feeling of being “blocked” or “stuck” comes from your resistance to changing your normal. When I realized that my mind works in “two parts” I began to gain control over my mind & business. First, there’s the conscious mind. That’s the mind that we use to tell ourselves, “Hey, I need to start working out” or “I’m sick of this job, I’m finally going to start my business” or “My business is failing, I need to implement new marketing or learn new strategies”. It’s the part of our mind that desires to grow and be better. Then there’s the conventional mind. This is the part of us that no matter what, wants to “stay the same”.
This conventional mind loves your bad habits. This is the part of our brain that always steps in to remind us of our old story we’ve been telling ourselves. “I’ve failed at losing weight 20 times, it’s not possible-I’ll never succeed” or “I can’t leave this job, I’m not a business owner-I’ve never been responsible for anything” or ” I can’t change what I’m doing, I’m too busy with my business to start some new marketing, plus I can’t learn this new thing anyway–I can’t change–what will my staff think?”. There’s no need to go on an archeology hunt to discover ALL the reasons WHY we want to stay the same or resist change (fear, other people, stories we tell ourselves etc..). Just ask yourself, is the story you’ve been telling yourself working–do you want to stay the same? Is the story even from you or is it one others have told you and you’ve just adopted it as your own? Don’t get mad or punish yourself for being this way….simply be aware of this part of your mind that works 24/7 to keep you THE SAME, you will recognize it when you feel blocked to move. When you feel blocked or stuck it’s usually your conventional mind winning the power struggle. So what do you do?
2. Step into Action: When you feel blocked and have realized your conventional mind is winning the power–struggle…there’s only one thing you can do. Step into Action! Some of you say, but I don’t know what to do–that’s WHY I’M STUCK! We usually always have a hunch of what to do next. We don’t get the whole plan revealed to us but we do get a hunch of our next step. It could be to call someone or not to call someone, send an email, read something, go somewhere, write something, clean something or whatever it is (when I’m stuck, many times I get a hunch to clean my house and during my cleaning I get these amazing ideas.) Sometimes the “thing” we are being pulled to do makes no sense. Just do it. It means something bigger than you is trying to guide you. Stop second guessing it. If you don’t take some action, even if it’s very small you will NEVER get unstuck.
You can’t THINK yourself out
of being stuck.
After you take that next step, pay attention to what you should do next. I’ve found that one step leads to another hunch of what to do next and they begin to build upon each other. Sometimes your steps reveal what you should do next or make it clear what you “shouldn’t” do. Once I started doing this, amazing opportunities & breakthroughs began to come my way that I wouldn’t have ever imagined. This may seem like a very “un-business” like way to run your startup or business....or even you're life but if you just try it out on small tasks to prove itself to you you’ll find it really does work.
Now, there’s a lot more details to this but I don’t have room to include it all in this short post but I assure you this will help you gain clarity and become unblocked IF you do it.
These insights may seem simple and obvious for some. That’s the magic of them. Never forget that when anything is stuck or blocked “action” must get involved. Even if the action is small or makes no sense get moving and stop letting your mind tell you it’s better to stay the same!
