How to break through a roadblock, Pt. 1

When things just aren’t going well …

Sometimes, no matter how much planning you’ve done, and no matter how dedicated you are to achieving a particular thing, sometimes … well, sometimes, it just doesn’t work out. Sometimes it’s your motivation; you just can’t get yourself all fired up like you used to. Sometimes you run out of ideas. You just don’t feel you have anything to give, at least nothing original. And sometimes you just plain run out of steam.

Churchill said it best when he said “When you’re going through hell … keep going!”, and yes, it can feel like hell (I can personally attest to that!). The best way, and Churchill expressed it in the briefest possible way, is to just keep going. But that’s easier said than done. It’s okay to think yeah, I’ll just keep going … but if the ideas aren’t coming, or if you’re short of the necessary motivation, then keeping going is precisely what you feel you can’t do. So how to get out of this rut? How to break through this monstrously constructed roadblock. And how to generate the ideas that just won’t come?

Write it down!

As is nearly always the case, I find it’s best to start with a blank sheet of paper (or, in my case, a blank document on the computer). Start writing down a few things that will help. Firstly, face the problem head on. Confront the enemy! And the way to do that, for starters, is to define the problem. What is it exactly? Is it motivation that’s missing? Ideas in short supply? Are you overcome with a feeling of having lost your way? Maybe you don’t even know what it is, what you’re supposed to be doing. Even so, the best way is to start writing …

It might sound counter-intuitive, but the first thing to get you on the road to taking some positive action is to define what’s negative about the situation. Write down that you can’t get things started, or you can’t finish a particular piece of the puzzle … or that you can’t keep going. To combat your enemy, first you have to face it! Write down how it makes you feel. Are you frustrated? Fed up? Annoyed? Miserable? Write it all down. Get it out of your head and onto the page. Let the page be your advisor, your counsellor. It’s surprising how often things start to become clearer once you put them down on paper, even if all you have to start with is a feeling of, well … being unable to start.

Then get specific. If it’s ideas, start writing about the problem; you need ideas for what, exactly? The more you write, the more you’ll find the answer will start to blossom right there in front of your eyes, on the page. You might come up with bright ideas for places to find ideas, or ways to go about it. You might be surprised to find that you have to interrupt your little missive to make hasty notes on a few ideas that come up while you’re writing about that very problem! Maybe it’s motivation; then write about how good it feels to be motivated, and to feel that there just isn’t enough hours in the day to do everything you want to do. You have so many ideas, and so many projects you want to start, that it’s hard to know what to tackle first. Write about it! Turn the problem on its head; write how good it is to be able to start, to find new ideas, to be motivated like never before.

By the law of attraction you’ll be creating just the situation you want. Just by writing about how good it is to feel seriously motivated you’ll very likely find your motivation levels rising of their own accord. And what have you used in the past to stay motivated? Have you used affirmations? Have you carried a card in your pocket with your goal (or goals) written on it, in clear, simple language? Have you created images, perhaps on your computer, to clarify what it is you want to be doing, or what you want to achieve? Whatever methods you’ve used, make use of them again! Revisit your affirmations, and rewrite them if necessary. Update any images you’ve created. Repeat the affirmations, with strong emotional conviction, again and again! These aren’t magic words, not in themselves – the magic is added when you let them stir your emotions. Then they can indeed become magic words, but you have to use them, and you have to believe in them.

Make your words become magic words!

Write down what it is you want to achieve. Write it again, more clearly this time. Keep it fairly brief, but make it powerful. Use power words, not flat, boring ones. Don’t write “I will come up with an idea for the (fill in the blank) within 24 hours”. Write something like “Ideas are coming to me thick and fast. I’m writing them down as fast as I can but there’s always more. I’m so creative I can’t stop them popping into my head!” That’s going to result in something more exciting than the first affirmation!

And when you repeat it to yourself do it with emotion. Make it real! Imagine it’s happening right now, or it’s just about to. Imagine how wonderful it will feel to be coming up with those ideas, or to feel powerfully motivated. Imagine the feelings of achievement that will come you way. Imagine how fulfilled you’ll feel. Use your imagination, and use it powerfully. If you just sit back in your chair thinking “I just can’t get myself motivated … nah … I’m just not coming up with any decent ideas … don’t really know what I’m doing anymore …”, do you really think that will make you suddenly come alive with ideas or fired up with motivation?

Remember, the brain cannot tell the difference between a vividly imagined scene or vividly felt emotion and the real thing. To the brain, it’s all the same. So when you actually feel motivated (even if you’re just imagining it!), then the message the brain receives is that you are motivated. When you feel a sense of achievement because you’re coming up with some great ideas, your brain actually believes you’re having those ideas, right now, even if you’re just imagining a future moment of achievement. So don’t be surprised when they start to bubble up, because they surely will!

Haven’t we been here before??

You’ve had great ideas in the past, right? You’ve been super motivated, and eager to crack on with whatever you’ve got going. You’ve felt successful. You know what it’s like to feel a sense of achievement. We all do! So recreate it! It all starts in the mind, and your thoughts are indeed magic. If your thoughts are focused on feeling miserable and unfulfilled, you will ‘magically’ find yourself still more miserable as time goes on, and even less fulfilled.

But if you feel empowered, and fulfilled, and as though there simply aren’t enough hours in the day for all the things you want to achieve, don’t be surprised if you start to feel highly motivated, and if (or should I say, when) ideas start to flood into your mind.

It really does all start in the mind. Your thoughts are real, and they have real power. They’re the kindling that will set alight your motivation and your creativity. Be careful to use your thoughts wisely, and to plant thoughts of success and achievement all the time. Because as you sow so shall you reap!

Plant only good seeds!

Stop thinking and imagining negative and disempowering thoughts, and do all you can to nip them in the bud as soon as you’re aware of them. They’re weeds in the garden of your mind. Keep planting them and tending to them and they’ll spread like wildfire. Instead, create empowering thoughts of success, thoughts of achievement, and feelings of fulfillment. Imagine the future you want for yourself and see it in detail and with such vividness that your brain has no option but to engineer the events and circumstances that will ensure its arrival. And keep tending and watering those success seeds every day, watching them grow and develop exactly the way you’d like.

Your future really is in your hands

We can’t see the future, that’s just a fact of life. But we can create it, or at least to a great extent. Become more and more aware of your thoughts, and make sure you only encourage the good ones. Spend time every day tending the good seeds, even if it’s only a few precious minutes. Don’t think of it as a chore – it’s time well spent, and a very real investment in your future.

Thoughts become things!

Thoughts do become things, and it’s up to you to spend some time creating good thoughts and watching them grow and develop. And as for the bad ones … pull those weeds out mercilessly! Do away with them! And the more determined you are at this, the fewer of them will ever take root.