CHAPTER 22
Your plate is only so big
We live in a fast-paced, busy-being-busy world where there is an endless to-do list, an ever-renewing set of deadlines and challenges that need our attention, and never enough time. I believe one of the key reasons people don’t achieve their most important goals is as simple as that they have no space in their life, no energy to manifest and no room on their plate to allow that goal to come true. To allow greatness to come into your life, you need to create space. What do you need to let go of or stop doing? Sooner or later you need to let something go to free the space and time for your goals to manifest themselves in your life. The simple action of not doing something that holds you back sends a powerful message that you are willing to change and that a spot is open for what is important to you to come into your life. It is hard to achieve all that you want when you have no time, no space and no energy. How are you going to do everything on your plate right now, let alone all the things you want to achieve in the future? A common challenge some people face is a tendency to say yes to everything. All too often people with great potential and kind hearts suffer from yes-itis: Yes, I can do that for you. Yes, I am happy to help out. Yes, I have time to complete that project. Then when it comes to the crunch you are overcommitted and overwhelmed and wonder, ‘How am I going to do all this?’ When this happens you tend to put yourself last, and that situation can sometimes persist for years. After almost two decades of working with people across the globe I have learned that everyone in their heart of hearts knows what they need to change. ALL OF US KNOW IN OUR HEART OF Everyone knows what they need to change; the key is in creating the right environment or set of circumstances, introducing the most appropriate catalyst for that message to appear. To identify what you need to change in your life to become the best you that you can be, you need to ask yourself the right questions. What do you need to let go of in your life? The easiest way to determine that is to ask yourself the following four questions. They are simple thought provokers and act as a sound catalyst to help you identify what you need to do now to achieve all that you are capable of achieving. Think about the key areas of your personal life and your career or business life, then ask yourself … What do you need to stop doing in your life in order for you to achieve all that you are capable of achieving? What is not serving you well? It could be a mindset, attitude, characteristic or activity that is slowing you down or holding you back from being the best you can be. Maybe you need to stop: What do you need to start doing if you are to achieve all that is possible for you to achieve? What have you been procrastinating over? What activity do you need to undertake that would bring out the best in you? What ritual, habit, behaviour or strategy, if you started it now, would propel you towards your goals so much more quickly? Maybe you need to start: What do you need to do less of in your life? I am a realist; I get it that there are some things you cannot stop altogether, but you can do them less often. What consumes your time or mental energy? What do you have to slowly release from your life? Maybe you need to do less: What do you need to do more of in your life? There are some things you do that just work for you; the challenge is that you don’t do them often enough. You are consistently inconsistent. You start it and it works and then you become distracted, lose focus — and you wonder why you don’t do it more often. Maybe you need to do more of the following: Sometimes we don’t need more answers, we just need to ask more questions. Whether on a conscious or a subconscious level, you know what you need to do to move forward. You just need to have the courage and confidence to listen to the answer and then act on it. You just need to get out of your comfort zone and do what may be uncomfortable or inconvenient. THE ANSWERS ARE ALWAYS IN The questions on the previous pages are about bringing to the forefront what you know and being brutally honest with yourself. As the Ethiopian proverb so eloquently states, ‘He who conceals his disease cannot expect to be cured.’ Any condition that stops you being the best you that you can be in your life, for your family, for your friends, for your colleagues and for the community you live, work and play in, is something that needs an antidote.
HEARTS WHAT WE NEED TO START DOING
IN OUR LIVES & WHAT WE NEED TO STOP
DOING IN OUR LIVES.
Stop doing
Start doing
Do less
Do more
THE QUESTIONS YOU ASK YOURSELF.