Probably you often hear that success is a journey. A journey implies going through change, progress with its ups and downs. And sometimes results are part of it and sometimes they are not.
Unfortunately the majority of people is constantly attached on getting RESULTS. For this reason they are unable to see their progress and resources when they are at their lowest point in life. But, this is just a temporary part of the journey, not a forever moment in life.
Think about the moment you were born. Did Life promise you specific results on your journey through it? It sounds ridiculous, doesn’t it? Why? Because the only purpose of life is to LIVE. This reminds me of Osho who says something like:
The only goal in life is life itself and you already have it that is why you have to enjoy it.
Of course, this doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t have goals at all. But, how many times do you reach your goals, aspirations, intentions and visions? How many times do your expectations get met? Does it happen 100% of the times?
Even if you did reach your goals 100% of the times, was it always EASY? Probably not. Why? Because you have to ADJUST, ADAPT to CHANGE and sometimes, change is hard because you have to face obstacles, limitations both externally (physical resources) and internally (knowledge, experience, emotional states, lack of clarity etc.) and mostly because you really do NOT know what to DO when facing NEW and UNKNOWN situations.
If you REALLY knew what to do, then change wouldn’t be difficult. But we already know how life is. We were not made any promises when we were born. So, we have to face the UNEXPECTED pretty often. The more you resist change, the more difficult your journey in life is or in business with or without goals. The more you accept and adjust to change, the more flexible you are, hence your ride will be easier, no matter if you reach your goals or not, no matter if you have goals or not.
When is it easier to talk about change and progress? When you are in the BEFORE or AFTER picture? When you already reached your goals, when you feel safe and successful OR when you are down, when you got fired or when your business is going through a crisis, when you have no profits and low sales? Of course, it is easier to talk about change and progress AFTER you overcame some difficulties in life.
But, when is it the MOST RELEVANT to talk about change and progress? When you are down or when you are up? Of course, when you are down because this is the moment you can see how you REALLY react to change, if you resist it, if you accept it or not. This is the moment you can observe yourself how you actually pull yourself out of it, how you adapt to change, how aware you are of your INNER resources to overcome limitations and obstacles.
So, here I am: a commercial worker that UNEXPECTEDLY got fired a couple of months ago. And one thing that came to my mind (besides being angry) is how do I make money next? I didn’t want to look for a job, I felt I couldn’t start over with another employer.
I wanted to go on my own, but I didn’t know exactly how because essentially I was in a LOW position to TEACH or PREACH about improvements in a business or in life in general: I am not in a business and I am not even employed anymore, I don’t have specific skills, I have some cash for a limited time period and I have no idea what I am going to do next. In this situation, nobody is going to listen to me or pay me for something that I have difficulties defining.
So, I am kind of between leaving the OLD behind and going for the NEW, for uncertainty, the uncharted, the untried.
While writing this article, I googled “dynamics of change” to see what shows up and I got across the Change Curve from bellow.
It is from the book “Dynamics of Change” and you can download it for FREE here.
I didn’t read the book, but I found the picture inspiring and I am going to add my own interpretation to it given my perception and situation right now:
If I look at my situation externally: the fact that currently I am unemployed and don’t know exactly what I am going to do next to earn money, I could say that I am in the position of “Inability to act”.
But if I look at my situation internally, I could say that I am somewhere between “Testing new things” and “New stability”, otherwise I wouldn’t be able to write this right now, I wouldn’t have the clarity to put this into words.
I don’t know exactly where I am heading to, but I am excited to test new ideas and that I can post here on Steemit because I got it that sometimes LIVING is the only goal that matters in life. Of course, this doesn’t mean that I should be irresponsible with my financial situation, but as you can see CHANGE and PROGRESS are indeed DYNAMIC and it doesn’t look like a flat or simple curve. It is a combination of multiple factors.
I am saying this because I have been in lower points in my life where I was in the position of “Inability to act” and in “Denial, escape” at the same time. These low points were both externally as I was jobless and internally as I was feeling like crap, feeling ashamed, guilty, victimizing myself and all that negative stuff. But, now I am just jobless :) and it took me just 4 days to get it from the moment I got fired while in the past it took me at least 3 months or even years to get over a rejection.
So, from my point of view, this is progress and progress is dynamic and cyclical.
So, successful people are right when they say that SUCCESS starts first in the MIND, it is a MINDSET. The mindset you have influences your results. Your inner world reflects on your outer world. But progress is a dynamic between the 2 worlds (within and outside).
Now you might say:
Yeah, right, what success? You are jobless!
The interesting part and the point I am trying to make is that you don’t need to get to the TOP of an external SUCCESS in order to get it. The mindset comes first and then, success on the outside if you want to experience fullfilment and enjoy the journey because, as you know, you can be successful without enjoying the journey.
Ok, so I have a good mindset, but not success. You are right! But this is the beauty of writing in REAL time BEFORE it happens. It is more exciting, you don’t know what comes next! And I got it that success is a journey, not an end goal and I enjoy the process right now while I am jobless and I have no idea how I will earn money next.
So, I was at my lowest point (both broke and depressed with “Inability to act” and in “Denial”), everything was foggy, I didn’t have the INNER CLARITY to understand what I was going through, I didn’t even know that I was depressed, I didn’t know I was victimizing myself. All I knew is that things were not going the way I wanted them to go.
From this point of view, I could say that I am in the AFTER picture and I could place myself in between “Ideas” and “Testing new things” because I am writing this right now. I could also say I have a “New stability” because of my current attitude.
And if I look at the fact that I am jobless and I have no idea how I will earn money next, I could say that I am still in the BEFORE picture, at the point of “Inability to act” and maybe also at “Acceptance of reality, looking ahead” at the same time.
As you can see CHANGE and PROGRESS are DYNAMIC, it is never a straight line or curve, it is cyclical. It is never about a secret ingredient. You constantly RECYCLE, RELIVE past or similar experience and the moment you change your REACTION, your RESPONSE to it, then PROGRESS occurs. This means you have learnt your lesson and you can go to the next level. The moment you change your RESPONSE and learn your lesson, the cycle of progress becomes a SPIRAL, meaning you are in a state of FLOW of LIVING your LIFE. Maybe that is why our DNA has a spiral shape.
Now, you can look at it as you wish because REALITY and PROGRESS are dynamic, they have many faces. You can look at how you feel about a situation or you can obsess over external results. But, I believe that by accepting both perceptions, then this is the moment when you start to live your life because life is the only thing it was given to us when we were born with no promise for results.
Change is unexpected, but we can CHOOSE our response to it. And the ability to CHOOSE does NOT come from will power, from ambition, but from the ability to TRACK and MONITOR your progress over time because it creates AWARENESS. And awareness is the ability to ACCESS resources from within when things don’t go as planned or as expected. The moment when you SEE your INNER resources, it creates you the opportunity to CHOOSE your response, the attitude you have and eventually, influences the ACTION you take.
And I am sure you have also been going through this type of changes and progress in your life when things don’t go as planned or as expected. The question is:
How AWARE are you of your inner and outer transformation and progress? How good are you at monitoring, tracking your progress? given that progress is cyclical and it implies change.
And change implies different combinations of UPS and DOWNS in life. Can you still see your PROGRESS when you are at your LOWEST point in life or in business, or in relationships when your label does not “scream success”, when nobody knows you, when you feel you are a failure? Can you use your lowest points to get to the next level?
You have everything you need right now to make progress and become whoever you want to become, it just that you might not be aware of it.
See you in the next article with other UPS and DOWNS in the CYCLE of PROGRESS because the beginning and the end are at the same border.
Mihaela Dragan