As we endeavor to sustain the success of our business and the fulfillment of our joy, there will be some distractions, interruptions, and absurdities along the way. When those show up, check your perspective. It doesn’t have to be hard. In fact it can be EASY to endure and move beyond what we imagine are the obstacles to our goals.
Here is a four step process to help you on your way and it is EASY to remember.
E – Expect it to be easy. Many people whom experience a great deal of struggle and set back in their life have developed the habit of expecting things to be difficult or hard. It’s almost as if it is done to protect themselves from potential disappointments. If they expect it to not work, be hard, or difficult, and it turns out that way, they get to be right and that somehow soothes the let down because they knew it was going to be that way. It provides a sense of maintaining control as odd as that sounds. Keep in mind when we expect something, we start looking for all the evidence to support our expectation so we can maintain the certainty of being right. Expect it to be easy and start looking for the evidence to prove yourself right.
A – Accept what currently is and don’t waste time wishing it was different. It happened. Those that make the desired progress they seek tend to see things as happening for their benefit and not to their detriment. Not to say that in the moment it can knock us off track mentally and emotionally. That’s part of life. The sooner we can embrace the perspective of acceptance the quicker we can move past whatever we judge may not be so good. Follow Winston Churchill’s lead here, “If you’re going through hell, keep going.”
S – Success vision. Before we start looking at all the reasons why it may be hard or why it won’t work, we first need to look at what success can look like with the situation. What do we want it to all look like when we are done? When we create a clear vision for ourselves we also set ourselves up to receive the awareness and impulses needed to bring about the desired vision we hold for ourselves. If we hold the vision as one of being hard, our experience will be hard. If we hold a success vision consisting of more ease, we will be shown the course to it’s achievement in that way as well.
Y – Yes attitude. I am not suggesting we adopt a Pollyanna attitude and seeing everything through rose colored glasses. In fact in her book – Rethinking Positive Thinking, Gabriele Oettingen advises, “In addition to seeing what you want also see the potential obstacles and develop a plan for how you will effectively handle them .” What I am suggesting is we say “Yes” to our full potential and capabilities to learn, grow, expand, and become better. Yes – to our ability to figure things out. It’s only by saying yes to obstacles and challenges that we can learn more and increase our capacity. When our capacity increases are ability to handle more expands and things start to feel easier.
Remember, it gets to be EASY as we learn and grow along the way.
Make it up, make it fun, and get it done!