Stuck In Life - 5 Simple Strategies That Will Get You Moving Forward
If a vicious animal is chasing you, you can't turn around and look at it - you will trip and fall and get eaten. Life is the same way - focus on where you are going, not on how bad things have been!
At one time or another, we have all found ourselves in a situation that was undesirable - whether it involved a painful relationship situation, an aggravating issue at work, an illness, or a emotional or mental challenge occurring deep in our own mind.
Then for some reason, no matter how hard we tried to break free, we just couldn't seem to get away from the circumstance.
It sometimes seems as if the harder that we push, the harder that everything else is pushing back against us. The higher that we try to climb, the further that is seems we have to go. Unfortunately, for many of us, this is more common than not so common.
There is a phrase often heard in personal growth environments - What You Resist, Persist.
It's a metaphysical concept that may be hard to prove with the current scientific method, but definitely something that many great teachers have sworn to throughout time.
What it's implying is that whenever you try to get away from something in your life, it's going to keep showing up - it's going to keep coming after you:
If you try to just quit smoking, you are left with a big emptiness that the cigarettes once filled - an emptiness that haunts you until you succumb to it - for most people, this becomes the reason to start smoking again.
If you try to get away from someone you don't like, you may find them "magically" showing up in your life even more.
Have you ever noticed that when you are worried about being late to an appointment, you usually run into more red lights when you are driving?
If you have even been lonely, needy, or frustrated about not being in a relationship, have you noticed it seems to push romance away, especially the type of love you are looking for?
Of course, this leaves us questioning what we can do when we encounter a challenging situation. Consider this - In order to change a circumstance in your life, instead of focusing on what you want to get away from, focus instead on where you are going.
"Everything you are against weakens you. Everything you are for empowers you."
Dr. Wayne Dyer
When you are fixated on what you don't want to create, it's like running down the street backwards - it's just a matter of time before you trip over something and the problem catches up with you. Just deciding that you want to "get way" from something is not enough. You usually have to turn yourself around and put your focus on where you are going.
What You Focus On, Expands
Say this to yourself over and over and over: What You Focus On, Expands. Drill this into your mind no matter what it takes. You life could literately depend on knowing and applying this concept.
If you are sick, and you focus on your sickness, you will likely get sicker. If you are poor, and you focus on your poverty, you will likely become poorer. If you keep yourself focusing on happiness, wealth, good health, lasting intimate connections - you will increase your probabilities of creating these things.
Of course, the real test comes down to when you are in challenging situations, not when everything is going smooth for you. It easy to picture yourself in a happy relationship when you are already in one. It can be more challenging to picture it though, when you haven't been on a date in six months, or when the last one seems like a disaster.
So taking this all into consideration, here are some concrete steps you can take right now to get you going towards what you want to create:
Immediately make a detailed list of goals about every area of your life. You can always change them as time passes on, but by having set goals, you know where you are going.
Whenever you find yourself complaining or dwelling on how bad things are now or how bad they were in the past, immediately put your focus on what you want to create and the steps you need to take to get there.
Whenever you have a thought/picture about what you want to get away from or what you are against in your life, immediately replace it with a thought or picture that represents where you want to go in your life.
If you find that shifting your thinking, emotional states, or the way you carry on a conversation is difficult, get some professional help - read some books, see a professional, take a course - do something!
Find a way to guard yourself from the influence of people who are not goal or solution focused - the whiners and complainers that usually just want your sympathy.
Shifting your focus towards what you want to create is a powerful step, although it's not necessary a "miracle pill" that's going to make everything perfect. You have to approach issues in life on every level - the physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual.
For example, if you want to create the right type of relationship in your life, shifting your focus away from "avoiding the bad relationships" to "creating your desired relationship" is critical. But you also need to get out in environments where you are likely to meet the type of person that you want to be with, rather than sitting at home waiting for it to just "happen."
Again, trying to get away from an issue instead of going towards what you desire is one of the most common obstacles that holds people back in creating the life that they want. Pay attention to how you may be engaged in this and make the changes in your life if necessary.
For powerful hands-on tools that you can use to shift your thinking, emotions, and behaviors towards what you want to create, check out the Institute's Life Mastery Course
