How many times have you heard someone say that their life would be different if some fanciful event were to happen to them? As a coach I hear this all the time. Prefixed by “If only…” or similar such words, clients go on to lay out incredible visions of how different their lives could be. I usually follow this up with this question – “Wouldn’t your life be going somewhere you really want it to go, if you started to do something about it?”.
More often than not, the usual response at this point is “Yes, but…”. Two small words, but they are like chains and they weigh tons. Why do I think this? It is because they must be heavy as they are enough to stop the client going somewhere where they really want to be. Chains because they link your dreams to whatever you have invented to hold you back.
Of the two, but is the most interesting, because whatever follows but is what the client needs to get over in order to move forward.
Skeptics might want to think about what they’d do if they won millions on the lottery. What would they do? How different would their new life be from the one they lead today?
What people forget is that you don’t have to be a lottery winner to start working towards the life you aspire to. When you think about your goals, do you think “Hell Yes!” or “Yes, but ….”? Is limiting thinking stopping you from doing what you really want to do?
The first step is often the hardest, but if you don’t start you will never finish.
Successful people are the ones that start things… they may not finish them all, but they never give up trying either.
As Evel Knievel so aptly put it “You can fall many times in life, but you’re never a failure as long as you try to get up”.
Wouldn’t it be a shame if you looked back on your life, regretting what might have been?
Yes, but…
Live your dreams, talk to a coach #startsomething.
This post was originally posted by Peter Duffell on LinkedIn.
