MOVEMENT, it is always happening. Even now as you sit reading you are moving, your eyes are scanning the page, a breeze may ruffle your hair, there is movement.
Our lives reflect this. There is always momentum in our lives, it can be forward or backwards momentum. As individuals we are never really static.
Even a person, who is stationary while the rest of the world moves forward, is in fact going backwards think of sitting in a moving vehicle while you leave your house, the car goes forwards but you leave the “stationary” house behind.
Enough on the theory of relativity, suffice to say you need to be moving forward or else you will naturally fall behind.
Moving forward generally means hitting your deadlines, setting and achieving your goals, improving your quality of life, improving the environment around you, promotions at work, raises, growth in all areas of your life.
You get the idea? Great. Today I would like to examine some of the hindrances to movement in our lives. I want to take a closer look at the ones that we have control over, I see little point in bemoaning things that we are unable to change.
Being comfortable with where you are has to be possibly the biggest single limit to going forward. You get home at the end of a long day, collapse into the sofa, put your feet up and settle there.
You are comfortable. You do not really feel the urge to move, in fact come bedtime the thought of getting up is just too much.
Even though there is a better, more restful bed awaiting you, would rather just stay put on the couch. Now extrapolate that on a larger scale to the rest of your life.
There is nothing wrong with sleeping on the couch, if that is where you want to stay, but there is a much better solution.
We all reach “couch points” in our lives in different areas. Perhaps you are comfortable with your current income, with the neighbourhood you are living in or your attitude towards life in general.
The question is are you stuck in the couch or have you reached the bed? Related to the comfort issue, yet subtly different is the limitation of apathy.
With apathy you may not be comfortable, but you just cannot be bothered any more. You have been dulled and worn out to the point where change no longer matters.
You find fault with anything that could be better, unable to be pleased, using your excuses to justify your laziness and stinking attitude.
Apathetic people refuse to take responsibility for their movement, they expect the world to be handed to them on a silver plate as though they have earned the right by their mere existence.
They blame their employers, their upbringing, the government, the church . . . in fact they blame anything but themselves for their status quo. When you shift blame you shift responsibility and no longer have to move.
Another way of generating a significant amount of apathy is to become preoccupied with time suckers and mind numbers.
Go ahead spend a few hours on Facebook or any other social media. Surf the web randomly. Play computer games for hours.
Read drivel rather than substance. Catch up seven seasons of a series. Go on waste your time. Each of the listed activities is not inherently bad, if done in small doses they may even be beneficial, but there comes a point where they just sap your creativity and will.
It is like getting fat, evidence suggests that there comes a point where the substances produced by fat cells sap your energy, affect your appetite and end up making you grow fatter as you eat more and drop your will to exercise.
While apathy is the extreme, it is safe to say that we all have an internal resistance to movement. In the same way that the initial inertia of a heavy object makes it harder to start pushing than to keep it moving (think of pushing your car).
There is a part of our brain that seeks to keep us where we are. It will make excuses for you, encourage self-sabotage and point out every reason for failure.
Recognise that this is part of you, put it in its little corner to rant, and move forward anyway by recognising all the benefits to moving.
Your resistance feeds off two great stimuli. The first is the voices of other people. Any criticism by others, any negativity, sets your internal resistance off with an “I told you so” and “what if”.
The “what ifs” are fuelled by the second stimulus to your resistance, the fear of the unknown. The future can be guessed at, predicted and imagined but it still remains an unknown factor.
Regardless of how accurate your predictions there is always the element of doubt that things may not go according to plan. Fear can be paralytic, stops you moving.
Alongside the unknown is the fear of apparent lack. This manifests in the waiting for everything to be absolutely perfect before starting a project.
While you wait someone else is going ahead to do the same process. Now I am not talking about recklessness or stupidity, you still need a solid business plan fleshed out with market research before venturing out.
However, there comes a moment when you just need to bite the bullet and go for it, working the details out as you go, correcting mistakes and continuing to go forward.
Why point out all these reasons Zach? Once you can recognise the enemy you can combat it better. Recognising the hindrances to your progress enables you to take charge and over come them. Stop making excuses and move forward lest you find yourself left behind
