As a small business mentor and personal development life coach, people come to me for one fundamental reason; change. Of course they will receive a great many other key mentoring services, such as experience, support, motivation and empowerment, but these attributes are subsequent to the initial desire for change.
Your decision to make a change is of critical importance. Not making a decision is the same as making a decision to do nothing, so nothing changes – and nothing changes if nothing changes. Once your decision to change has been determined, your energy can then be focused on its implementation, so that your change can propel your ultimate growth and progress forwards.
Many people are nervous of change, as they would prefer to cling to what is familiar, for fear of the unknown - better the devil you know and all that, but this mindset is so restrictive and limiting. Some people are resigned to living the same day for 65+ years and calling it a life, just so they can survive it relatively unscathed – but is this really living?
Life should not be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely, in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside in a cloud of smoke, thoroughly used up, totally worn out and loudly proclaiming “Wow! What a ride! - Hunter S. Thompson
I too have been reluctant and weary of change, assuming change would automatically equal worse than before, but now I'm older and wiser, I can see how self-limiting that predictive thinking was. Never a super-frilly and fru-fru kinda girl, I had a pair of trainers I used to live in as a seventeen year-old tennis fanatic. So excessively loved were these trainers, that my friends became exasperated, and simply refused to be seen in public with me wearing them; so they were eventually replaced.
Everything has a finite lifespan, nothing lasts forever, we know this. So what does encourage us to change, to i.e.: buy a new pair of shoes? Well, no matter how comfortable a pair of shoes may have been, there comes a point where they become uncomfortable and/or unfit for purpose. They may still feel fabulous around your toes, but the sole is letting in water, so they no longer fulfill the fundamental need they were bought for (to protect your feet). Now change is essential, because to not change now would be detrimental. Let's apply this analogy to your life. Honestly, what may still be comfortable, but has otherwise been outgrown? What must change now to propel your progress forwards? What, if left unchanged, will impede your growth and (eventually) become detrimental to you?
It's not uncommon for people to come to me because they know, or feel, something has to change, but they're not sure what, or where or how to start. These people need a thinking partner, not an echo chamber; someone who is going to probe with gentle and patient questioning, rather than just “nod 'n' hmmmm” from a fully paid up member of the Ain't It Awful Club. A clearing of your mind must get under way. Together we must hack back the mental weeds that are concealing and obstructing your true path, your true self.
You cannot take the mild approach to the weeds in your mental garden. You have got to hate the weeds enough to kill them. Weeds are not something you handle; weeds are something you devastate - Jim Rohn
I have helped many people identify what and where their mental weeds are, before fervently encouraging them to stop fertilising these weeds with enriched bullock manure. Too often people can become stuck in a self-limiting pattern of negative thoughts, behaviours and choice selections, which become their norm, their comfort zone; their metaphoric pair of comfy old excessively loved trainers. We need to clear it all out – the weeds, the trainers, the dodgy analogies and metaphors, everything; it's all got to go! When things, attitudes, life becomes tired and stagnant, change is already overdue.
Bring me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, the tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!
- Emma Lazarus
How are you stuck, stagnant? Are you tempest-tost? Do you already know what the changes you need to ring in are, or would you like some help with that? Are you ready to embrace the new, previously unseen aspects available to you? Are you ready to do the work required, to make the changes, which will propel your progress forwards? If you are then let us get started, there isn't a second to lose. Please call or email me today to claim your free, hour-long, initial consultation: 01536 601749 | hello@karanscott.com
I will look forward to meeting you and learning how best I can help you with your growth promoting, life enhancing and/or business development changes. It takes courage to embrace change, but that's okay, because you already have everything you need – you just need a little help bringing it out of yourself and using it to it's fullest. You'll be fine, I'm here to help.
Karan x