Do you ever feel stuck, like you’re not moving forward on your path?
It could be because you feel like you haven’t been making any progress toward your goals, so you’re ready to throw in the towel.
Or it could be because you’re experiencing Analysis Paralysis--that place where you aren't sure what to do next, and you don't want to make a mistake, so you keep looking for what you are missing in books, blogs, or courses, thinking that one missing ingredient will finally pop up and you'll have that big "Ah-Ha!" moment when everything becomes crystal clear.
How do you get out of that funk and move forward? I’ve learned a little on my own journey that I want to share with you.
Identify Why You Feel Stuck
Sometimes I get tired on my journey because I can’t see much visible progress toward my goals.
And sometimes I get stuck in Analysis Paralysis because I’m researching and reading so much that my brain is a jumble of methods and ideas and steps, and I can’t figure out which way to move.
I remember so many difficult points on our journey to debt freedom...
I Felt Like I Was Going Around in Circles
Some days I felt like I was right back at the beginning of the journey. It was discouraging to feel like I’d “backtracked” after I’d moved forward. But I've come to see my path as a series of twists and loops. Sometimes it can feel like I am further back than where I started, but I'm not. That's just where my path goes.
Your path is similar, twisting and looping. Some days you’ll feel like you're making great progress, and others you’ll feel like you're back to the beginning. But you aren't ever back to the beginning. That's just where your path goes.
Related:
9 Steps to Gaming Your Goals
8 Keys to Reaching Your Biggest Goals
I Was Afraid to Make Mistakes
When we started our journey over a decade ago, there was so much information out there that I felt like I was drinking from a fire hose. There was so much advice on how to clean up our financial mess that I would get caught up in finding the “right” way to do it--so much so that I felt paralyzed, like I couldn’t move.
Fear of making a mistake, and letting that fear stop you, will cause you to wake up a year from now finding that you are in exactly the same place. Don't let that fear stop you.
Take the Next Step
We’ll never completely get rid of our fears. But courage is action in the face of fear.
So, afraid of making a mistake? Move anyway. Even imperfect action is better than no action.
ACTION brings clarity, not analysis. You can't think your way to the right move. You've got to move.
Fail Fast
You might be like I was, worried about making mistakes. Let me let you in on a little secret: You will make a mistake. You'll probably make a lot of them. But those mistakes are all opportunities to learn, course correct, and move forward. Without them, you won't go anywhere.
I love the saying in business, "Fail Fast, Fail Forward." It means that there are failures that must happen so that you can learn the lessons and get to the next level. You simply can't get there without those failures. In fact, you NEED the failures so that you can learn.
The failures and lessons in your past have brought you to today, to this point. And there are failures in your future you must go through, to learn from them, to get past them and on to the success you dream of.
There is one caveat: You've got to keep going.
Keep Moving Forward
The future you want is ahead on your path, but you have to keep moving, even when it feels like you are going in circles. It's forward on your path. The faster you learn from your mistakes, the smaller the loops on your path will be.
When you get stuck, afraid to make a wrong move, it's like you are in a roundabout, afraid to take the wrong road. You’ll get nowhere at all if you don't choose one and take what comes. It may be a mistake. You may fail. But you'll also have that opportunity to learn, and that's when you get out of the loop and move forward.
So take that step, even if it's wrong. If it turns out it was wrong, learn from the experience and keep going. That's how you get to the future you want.
You’ll never have a perfect journey. But it’s yours, and when you look back, you’ll see all the progress you were making along the way, even when it didn’t feel like you were moving forward.
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To help with visually tracking your progress, check out my shop with printable trackers for almost any goal!
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What helps you move past Analysis Paralysis? Was it something I mentioned here, or a new idea? Let me know in the comments below!
