Why are individuals and businesses struggling today?

Words of wisdom for this week.

“The real voyage of discovery is not in seeking new landscapes but in having new eyes.”
– Proust

Here are the 13 primary contributors to circumstances that cause us to feel out of control, stressed or uncertain.

1. Resistance to change.
2. A feeling of being stuck or a victim mindset.
3. An unwillingness to re-invent yourself or your business.
4. A lack of a creative or innovative life outlook.
5. Letting the past determine your future.
6. A lack of an effective, practical, workable and accountable plan.
7. The temporary or permanent loss of passion, self-belief or confidence.
8. Indecision – a wait and see attitude. An inaction approach to uncertain circumstances.
9. Feeling dominated by fear or a lack of self-trust.
10. Emotionally or mentally closed to outside-in viewpoints, answers or methods.
11. Personal blind spots often caused by ego dominance.
12. A sense of entitlement – the world owes you.
13. Inconsistent integration, application, action and follow-through.

Any of the above resonate with you as you live and work from day to day?

There is a simple and an effective solution to all of the above – A “Throw away the box™” mindset and a willingness to reinvent and reignite yourself, your career or your business. Just in case there is any confusion about throw away the box – I’m sure you’ve heard the phrase think out of the box, well my attitude during challenging times is throw the box away. Got what it takes?

Here are a couple of things you can do if you’re not sure how to begin this simple yet vital process.

1. Spend more time with people who have thrown the box away.
2. Spend some time in self-evaluation to determine where you are ruled by conventional wisdom and old paradigms.
3. Turn off the nay-sayers in your life who continue to berate your creative thinking.
4. Learn to be more comfortable with where you are not yet rather than where you are.
5. Be willing to risk and accept the consequences of those risks.
6. Accept the simple fact that you never fail until you stop trying.
7. Learn to see problems, adversity and failure in a new way – as opportunities to learn rather than things to avoid.
8. Start exposing yourself to new people, situations, thinking, viewpoints and opportunities.
9. Accept the simple fact that there are other ways to see or define things than from your traditional mindsets.
10. Embrace the uncertainties in life as adventures and not things to fear or avoid.

Any or all of these will help you as you begin to shed your attitudes, outlook, viewpoints and so called truths that may prevent you from throwing away your box.