Imagine only one team playing itself in soccer. Each player would have to play both offense and defense at the same time and make an honest effort to both score and block the goal during the same play. Besides being utterly self-defeating, it sounds like a recipe for twisting or spraining something.
Yet, I would contend that sometimes we too block our success at the exact same time we are trying our hardest to succeed.
To proudly mix metaphors, this is like putting the pedal to the metal and pumping the brake at the same moment, like trying to both drive forward and in reverse at once.
Basically, you or I can become ensnared in an all out tug-or-war as our dreams and hopes duke it out with our fears and desire for things to remain the same.
Sometimes when we are enmeshed in such a fruitless tug-of-war, we focus on the elements of our success that we have little to no control over, while paying less attention–or neglecting entirely–the elements of our success that we DO have some degree of control over.
Why do we do this? I do not know.
But I do know that it’s distracting and tiring, and self-defeating.
So, if you find yourself doing this to yourself, l encourage you to explore some answers to this question: “What’s a more effective approach to going for the things I want in life?”
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JASON FREEMAN is a Professional Speaker and the proud owner of a Speech Impediment. He is also the author of “Awkwardly Awesome: Embracing My Imperfect Best” and a Perseverance Coach.
He excites and encourages his audience to break through the barriers of their own limitations using a method he created, called “Doing your Imperfect Best ™”.
His Imperfect TEDx Talk can be viewed here.
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