Even when we know how to find the ten types of opportunity that can exist in any situation, and how to choose the one that suits us best, there are still three main reasons why we might find ourselves stuck. The first is overthinking. The second is not knowing who we want to become. And the third is simply that we feel afraid.
In a time of such enormous change, this is hardly surprising: all ways forward are unpredictable and likely to be difficult to achieve.
So how can we best respond?
One way would be to scale back our plans, aim lower. Another would be to remember that courage is not the absence of fear, it is feeling the fear and doing it anyway. And a standard coaching response is to ask yourself, “What is the worst that could happen?”, create a plan to deal with that, and then decide whether you still want to move forward.
But as Elon Musk said, a long time ago:
“When something is important enough, you do it even if the odds are not in your favor.”
So if these three approaches are not enough for you, you might prefer to follow a deeper, more creative, more generative response. And that is to remember the words of Nelson Mandela in his inaugural speech as the first Black president of South Africa.
Quoting Marianne Williamson, he said:
“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be?”
Our playing small does not serve the world, it does not serve the people around us, and most importantly it does not serve us.
When William Shakespeare steps up and does the difficult work to become all that he can, we all benefit. When the Beatles and the Rolling Stones step up and do the difficult work to become all that they can, we all benefit. When Steve Jobs and Volodymyr Zelenskyy step up and do the difficult work to become all that they can, we all benefit. And when you and I step up to become all that we can become, everybody benefits again.
As Nelson Mandela also said:
“There is no passion to be found… in settling for a life that is less than the one you are capable of living.”
Passion is what gets us up in the morning. Passion is what makes us feel alive.
And as Steve Jobs said,
“Follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary… If you haven’t found what you love, keep looking.”
When we align ourselves with what matters most to us, we fully express the best version of ourselves, we bring the greatest value to the world, we create the world we most want to live in, and we give ourselves the energy and enthusiasm we need to succeed.
This is what life is for.
In this time of change, all ways forward are likely to be difficult and uncertain. That’s just the way it is. Are you settling for a life that is less than the one you are capable of living? Or are you learning to use this time of change to become clearer about what matters most to you and more able to achieve that? Are you using this time of change to become antifragile?
Adapted from Inner Leadership: a framework and a set of tools for building inspiration in a time of change.
You can sign up to daily posts here.
You can buy the book here and the workbook here.
(And remember: you can’t learn to swim just by reading about swimming, you also need to do the practice.)
Photo By Stephanie Carter via StockPholio.net