We all know that moment (or moments) when we absolutely know that we need to shift our mindset, change direction, do something different…do something and yet a fog of inertia seems to reign.
The pressure mounts inside us and yet nothing seems to move or change and despite being capable, positive people we encounter a form of stasis. This might be felt on the deeply personal and often challenging. front in situations like weight loss, quitting smoking, starting a new fitness regime or making a change within a relationship. It may be on a smaller scale as we shuffle the same old things around our to-do list making no inroads on the longstanding hard to shift items. Professionally, it may be that we know we have to mobilise something and yet, reasons and excuses abound and we find ourselves still stuck at the same point.
On a simple level we know that in each case we have to find our will – our commitment to action. Sounds easy! However, while strong and powerful in some situations, the will can be like a wobbly jelly in others. At which point we must go deeper.
We must find the courage to explore the underlying reasons, the ‘whys’, of our inertia. They may be specific to the task we are seeking to progress or more generic, pervasive in terms of our current state of mind. We may even have strayed into a mildly depressive state where we have allowed a general fog to take hold.
Finding the courage to go underneath means facing ourselves. Asking some questions – what benefit am I getting from staying stuck? For example, with weight loss, there could be reasons why the body needs to hold onto weight – as a form of emotional protection. So we go deeper again – what is the emotional issue that needs to be addressed? How am I going to get started with that?
Or with a work situation – why am I procrastinating? What am I avoiding? Or whom? Or what’s the risk I face by dealing with the situation I’m avoiding? What’s the worst that will happen…and how can I deal with that? Self-coaching is key or getting support from a professional coach – both help with activating the courage and the will to overcome the inertia.
On a more global level, the world situation can become a great fog blanket behind which to hide and validate our inertia – and yet, we know if we are willing to lift the lid, that sense of being small in a large-scale problem is just an excuse. Yes the scale of change needed is huge and can feel like it’s beyond us and yet as many of us will have seen written ‘what can I do said 7 billion individuals?’
At whatever level our inertia sits, facing it is the only way we can bring about change. We all have way more courage than we think. Let’s not waste it.