How many times in your life have you heard someone say “I’ve got to get my act together”? Or you may have heard it expressed as “I need to get my priorities straight”.
Be honest now… How many times have you said these statements to yourself? How many times has someone else said them to you? I would imagine that over the years, it’s been quite a few times.
These self professed acknowledgements are sure-fire indicators that something is potentially out of balance in your life or in your work. Perhaps both. While there are numerous potentialities for what may be occurring (or not) in your life, there is a high likelihood that you are stuck in one form or another. Worse yet, you may not even realize it.
Following below are the Top 5 Signs That You’re Stuck:
You’re Floundering. The most common sign of floundering is indecisiveness. This typically takes the form of waffling about making decisions and initiating the actions that you deep down know must be taken. One part of you says that you don’t know what to do or aren’t sure about what to do. Conversely, there is another part of you that instinctively knows what the right thing to do is, yet you can’t seem to pull the trigger.
You’re Disorganized. When your normal state of organization deteriorates into an inefficient state of chaos it’s a sure sign that you are not coping well and that something is affecting your life to a significant degree that is sufficient enough to disrupt your ability to remain organized.
You’re Procrastinating. Putting off your least favorite tasks or chores temporarily while you work your way down to the bottom of your list is reasonably normal. However, when you start putting things off for longer periods of time or even indefinitely this is not normal. The problem with true procrastination is that you disproportionately skew in your mind that which needs to be done. You build the task into a monumental event far beyond the scope of reality, i.e. cleaning out the garage is going to take me all weekend and will cause me to not be able to play golf with my buds on Saturday. Plus I’ll miss out on… (You get the picture).
You’re Avoiding. The act of avoidance differs from simple procrastination in that is not merely circumstantial, rather it’s 100% “intentional”. In variably what you are avoiding has a clear consequence associated with it. Consequences are generally painful, which may not always impact just you. Often times, what you’re avoiding will also cause pain or disappointment to someone else.
You’re Distracted. There are times in life when you will find yourself in a state of “overwhelm”. In such circumstances your state of overwhelm is going to cause you to be easily distracted. When your conscious brain becomes overloaded it enters into search mode looking for a way out of the pickle you find yourself in. Everything then becomes a distraction which only serves to further cloud the issue of what to do next.
In that you are a perpetual work in progress, the reality is that you will never truly “get your act together”. You will however find yourself stuck in a ditch along side the road of life from time to time. While it’s never a pleasant experience to endure, you will in the end get through it.
The correct mindset to adopt when you find yourself in one of these roadside events that will actually make more sense than the aforementioned adage… is “To get your life back on track”. Don’t allow your life to get put on hold for any appreciable length of time. Call a tow truck (get real help), get yourself out of the ditch and get yourself back on the road of life. Then put your foot on the accelerator and get back up to speed.
In the process, you would be wise to heed adage #2 from the intro above and seriously consider what is genuinely “important” and further enhance your recovery process by prioritizing the most important issues and tasks that will get you back on track, back up to speed and back in control of your life.
Copyright © 2013 Developing Forward | Thomas H. Swank, CBC | All Rights Reserved.
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