Those of us who walk and drive on snow and ice for several months of the year know all about slipping. We learned the winter walk early in life. There’s the shuffle, the flat-footed stomp (never on your toes!), and the high-heeled boot that works well if you do it with a heel.
As for driving… winter tires, lighter oil, antifreeze and a window defogger make things doable. The rest depends on the driver. It always amazes me how invincible four-wheel drive owners think they are. They fly past me on the four lane highway, kicking up clouds of snow and temporarily blinding me, only to be the first to fall into the ditch in the road! Common sense people, common sense.
But whether you’re walking or driving, there are hidden dangers that even the best of precautions can’t prevent and that appear when you least expect them.
Like the fact that walking on snow and walking on ice require different talents, but when combined, like the time I thought I was walking on snow, but the snow was just a thin layer covering a layer of ice. Mortal! You know, one of the most helpless feelings in the world is when your feet fly off and you find yourself on your back, breathless, eating snowflakes as they fall into your open, breathless mouth.
Or you hit black ice on the road and suddenly find yourself doing 360-degree turns in the middle of the road, while your eyeballs (which you could hit with a stick) are fixed on the cinder blocks lining the shoulder. whose express purpose is to prevent you from falling off the cliff if you get too close. Sure to get your heart going!
When it comes to our ability to set goals, just like learning the winter walk or ‘drift driving’ talents, there are lessons we can learn to avoid goal slippage.
Five of my favorites are the following:
1. When you fall, get up
Do what little children do. Have you ever heard of a baby learning to walk who sat up after a failed attempt to stay upright and said, “This walking thing is too hard, I’m never going to learn how, I fail every time I try, I guess?” that ‘I’ll crawl everywhere from now on’.
Every person on this earth who was born with the physical ability to walk has walked. Every person on this earth born with the mental capacity to think of what they want can have it. So why do so many of us sit still after a couple of tries?
Perspective.
Instead of seeing a ‘failure’ as a teacher, we see it as something we did ‘wrong’. You can’t be successful without the lessons of some failures. Instead of asking “What is the value of this experience?” we tend to punish ourselves. Failures are good, failures are necessary paths that help us climb our mountains of success. So what doesn’t kill you makes you better. Success is a direction, not an event.
When you fall, get up. Get up and look for the value, the lesson. Apply it during your next try and in no time you’ll be like that baby walking around with a toothless smile of success written all over his face.
2. Do not die with your song without singing
You were born with a song in your heart. He was whispered in your ear at the moment of your birth. You are here to sing it. It is your ‘Ultimate Purpose’.
It’s not something you need to look for. Many people spend their lives ‘seeking’ their Purpose. They are looking “out” instead of in. You don’t have to go looking for it. Let me repeat that, ‘You don’t have to go looking for it’! You already have it. Your soul sings it. You just need to be able to hear it.
Instead of looking for your Purpose, look for the person who can guide you to recognize it. Because that’s what it is…recognition.
When you recognize and sing your song, it is a certainty that your goals are aligned with your Purpose. Without that synchronicity, the path is slippery where you can veer off course and fall into the ditch again and again. Achieving goals doesn’t have to be so difficult.
When you consciously live your Purpose, you become inspired (in-spirit).
Recognize your Purpose and align your goals with it and goal setting quickly replaces goal slipping.
3. Get off the fast track
The higher the speed, the longer the slide will be when slipping.
The most frequent complaint I hear from my clients is that they are overwhelmed and don’t have enough time to do everything they need to do. The time they have is spent with ‘must do’ and there is no time left to ‘want to do’.
The first thing to realize about the fast pace and rate of overwhelm in your life is that YOU created it and YOU can stop it.
Our globe isn’t spinning any faster, the seasons aren’t changing any faster, and the hands of the clock aren’t turning even though it may seem so. The rhythm of life is marked by humans and you are human.
In the space I have here, I can’t cover the many aspects of time management, but the bottom line is simple, “take back your power.” Set some boundaries with the people in your life. Learn to say no.” Take the time to plan and organize better, as this will save you hours in the long run. Reward yourself for your accomplishments, big or small. Focus only on the task at hand and don’t let your mind race ahead of you.
Without having this under control, you may find yourself in a runaway skid with no brakes and no idea where you’ll be when you stop.
By stepping on rather than bleed off the fast track, you’ll be able to enjoy your goal-setting process and keep your power where it belongs… with you.
4. Listen to their language
You may be doing all the right things in pursuit of your goals, writing them down, a vision board, etc., but it can all be undone by the way you talk to yourself or verbalize to others.
For example, if you set a goal of increased income and ‘language’ poverty, you’re not on the same frequency as the Law of Attraction and, again, that goal of more income can go off the dial.
Here is an example:
Instead of: “I need an income of $100,000 per year”
Say this: “I gain an income of $100,000 per year”
Using the word “need” keeps you in a constant state of “needing” instead of “winning.”
Instead of: “I am No living in poverty“
Say this: “I’m living a life of comfort and luxury”
Do you see how the words “no” and “poverty” emphasize the negative? Once again, the positive energy leaks out and leaves you in a state of ‘have not’. Shift your attention to what you want instead of what you don’t want.
Instead of: “I want a new Ford Mustang convertible”
Say this: I love driving my new bright red Ford Mustang.”
The word ‘want’ keeps you in that state of ‘wanting’ instead of having’.
Just judge by how you feel when you say each of the sentences above. Which ones bring up feelings of joy? Do the same with your own sentences.
Keep your ear open for the use of negative words and consciously turn them into positive words. At first it will seem like constant work, but sooner than you think, you will automatically begin to choose a positive framework for your visions.
Don’t let your goals get away with negative language when it’s such an easy solution.
5. Be a bud cutter
I’ve always been a Bud-Nipper. I like to nip things in the bud, catch things before they hit rock bottom, get out of hand. It’s a heck of a lot less stressful, less wasted time, and healthier to be a Bud-Nipper.
However, there is one thing you must do to qualify as a Bud-Nipper. You You have to come out of denial. you have to see things as they are are, no fancy frills, no dim lighting, no rose-tinted glasses.
Like weeds in the garden, pull a few every few days or ignore them until you have a big job ahead of you that seems like too much work, so you keep procrastinating. This only adds to his ‘overwhelm’ (number 3).
One of the best examples of cutting sprouts comes in your own health. One of your goals may be to feel better and have more energy by being healthier. You have a nagging pain in your stomach, but you ignore it and tell yourself it will go away. It continues to get worse over time until it becomes an emergency and you need to see a doctor. Now, instead of controlling his acid reflux with a simple medication or dietary change, he has a complete erosion of his esophagus.
Which would you rather experience? The simple solution to cutting out breakouts or the longer, more complicated, more painful and expensive experience.
Bud removal is prevention. You have the ability to prevent many of the dramas or traumas that creep into your life. How can you focus on setting goals when you have to deal with so many crises?
So there you have it, five insightful steps for you to practice to avoid goal slippage. What if you just focus on a different one every week for the next five weeks? Do you think that would cause some changes for you? These steps are your winter boots, your winter tires, your winter walk, your antifreeze, and all those other slip preventions. You will find that you can stop before you hit the ground or the ditch.
So nip that negative language in the bud and get up singing your song when you get off that fast track!
© Lynn Moore 2007
