“Most of the things that stop us aren’t things we can’t do, but things we refuse to learn.” -James Woosley
Over the past few weeks we’ve talked about choice. Choice in where we focus. Choice in the messages and environments in which we engage. Choice in the words we choose and use. These all relate to getting unstuck. At the end of the day, stuck is a choice. It may be an unconscious choice, but it is a choice.
Getting unstuck means recognizing you always have a choice, even if you can’t see it…. or don’t want to see it. Choice comes with responsibility. In order to make a choice and act, you must take responsibility. That leads to either success or failure. This means change, also a struggle for many. It may lead to a glorious success or a total failure.
So, what do you do if you fail? I suggest a mindset shift. Any time you fail, look at it as a learning opportunity. Unless the failure means your death, you have an opportunity to learn and grow from the experience.
I suggest you adopt Thomas Edison’s perspective on “failing” as he developed the electric light bulb.
“I have not failed 10,000 times. I have not failed once. I have succeeded in proving that those 10,000 ways will not work. When I have eliminated the ways that will not work, I will find the way that will work.”
Another way to look at failure is to ask yourself the question, “What does this make possible?”
A friend of mine is facing a choice in her career. She’s transitioning to a role as a Spiritual Director. She trained for two years, then “hung her shingle” under the auspices of a non-profit that offers Spiritual Direction services in her town. Over the past year, her clientele has grown. At the same time, the focus and the leadership of the non-profit has shifted significantly.
The alignment and definition of how she practices Spiritual Direction has to change significantly if she wants to remain in this group.
She is facing a choice. She can stay, going against her values and understanding of how she conducts her work, or she can find a new place, more aligned with her values and understanding of Spiritual Direction.
She is frustrated. She questions starting out in this place. She believes she failed by starting under the auspices of this non-profit.
I see it differently. I see the non-profit as an incubator, a safe cocoon to grow into her identity as a Spiritual Director. Now, she needs to move out of the cocoon, as the butterfly she has become in this role. Now she’s ready for the bigger role, the bigger space, the bigger impact.
Where are you? Are you stuck…. playing small…..refusing to learn, because playing big requires you to make a choice and a change?
Join us for the Awaken Your Masterpiece webinar on August 23. We’ll explore the five-step process of getting unstuck so you can make the bigger impact for which you were designed.
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