The first four skills of Inner Leadership are the ability 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 three big reasons why we can still find ourselves stuck.
The first is overthinking or analysis-paralysis. This is when we over-analyse a situation so much so 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 B…?”
The second reason is when we aren’t sure who we want to become: if we don’t know the future we want to create for ourselves how can we choose our best next step to take us there?
And the third reason we can get stuck is simply out of fear: fear of the unknown, fear of failure, and even fear of success.
So the fifth key skill or competency of Inner Leadership is the ability to overcome these three blockages.
We can achieve this by realising that:
- In a 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 changing, the biggest danger comes from staying still
- There is no ‘correct’ way forward, only the one that will bring us and the people around us the most energy and enthusiasm to wake up every morning longing to make it happen
- And even if we ‘fail‘ to achieve the particular outcome we want, we will still gain useful learning and experience. And that will help us to find another, better forward, towards whatever matters most
Knowing these things enables us to overcome the three main things that can sometimes keep us stuck. That enables us to begin. And that is the next key 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 for you to be able to do this 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