If you’re serious about using your changing yourself, for personal and professional growth, then, at one time or another, you’ll need to address these 7 normal, predictable challenges.
In all the years we’ve been coaching and counseling, doing seminars and developing self-help tools for people, we’ve found that almost everyone has to face at least one of the following:
1. Resistance to Change. Let’s face it: The familiar is comforting, even if it’s not good for you.
2. Lack of Familiarity. It can be as if a voice in your head says, Hey, my mom and dad didn’t do it this way, so it must not be right for me.
3. Fear of Making Mistakes. You can be paralyzed by this fear, which is in itself the biggest mistake you can make.
4. Not Enough Time. Sometimes this is simply a matter of emotional or intellectual laziness, coupled with a lack of real desire.
5. Wanting to Be Right at All Costs. Needing to be right neutralizes your willingness to work things out.
6. Misidentifying with Your Feelings. Those feelings feel “normal” and, therefore, you can perceive them as a part of you.
7. Feeling Too Vulnerable. It’s as if you’ve removed your armor and may feel dangerously exposed.
How can you deal with these? There are lots of ways, among them using the tips that are posted each week. Theses tips are designed to help move you through all 7 of them. Of course, recognizing that you’re faced with one of these is the first step, and it’s easy to be in denial about that. So ask yourself, Honestly, do I feel as if I’m being held back by any of these 7 challenges?
You may find that you need a coach, too, someone who’ll offer you specific strategies for creating deeper resolution. If one of these issues is particularly “big” for you, it can turn into an emotional blind spot and limit your ability to grow beyond it. But if you can learn to see through the blind spot, you can gain self-awareness and wisdom. You can emerge from the tunnel of suffering created by misunderstandings and mis-perceptions. You can open your eyes and see a new world with new possibilities.
