The first four skills of Inner Leadership are the abilities to stay calm in a crisis, make clear sense of the situation, find more opportunities, and then choose the best way forward.
But even when we know what we want to do, there are still three major big why we might sometimes find ourselves stuck.
The first is called overthinking or analysis-paralysis. This is when we analyse a situation so much that we cannot take a decision. Like Hamlet, we flip back and forth between the possibilities, endlessly asking: “Option A or Option B, that is the question…? And what about Option C or Option D? And what if I fail? Or what if I succeed? And what about Option E or Option A or Option B…?”
The second reason we can get stuck is when we aren’t sure who we want to become: if we don’t know the future we want to create for ourselves then how can we choose our best next step to take us there?
And the third reason is simply fear: fear of failure, fear of success, or simply fear of the unknown.
What all this means is that the fifth key skill or competency of Inner Leadership is the ability to overcome these three blockages.
We can achieve this when we realise four things:
- In this time of massive change we will never be able to predict or control what happens, so all ways forward are a step into the unknown
- When everything is around us is moving and changing, the biggest danger comes from staying still, where we were
- There is no ‘right’ way forward — only the way forward that will bring us the most energy and enthusiasm to wake up every morning longing to make it happen, to overcome the issues that will inevitably arise
- And even when we ‘fail‘ to achieve a particular outcome, we will still gain useful learning and experience — which can then help us find another, even better forward, towards whatever matters most to us
When we know these four things in our bones, we gain the ability to overcome any of the three main blockages that sometimes keep us stuck. That enables us to begin. And that is the next step to becoming antifragile.
Have you ever found yourself feeling stuck? Were you overthinking, feeling afraid, or did you simply not know the destiny you wanted to create for yourself? Did you eventually choose the way forward that inspired you most? Would it be useful to be able to do that more quickly next time?
Adapted from Inner Leadership: a framework and tools for building inspiration in times of change.
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Photo by National Library of Scotland via StockPholio.net