Have you ever been stuck in a personal rut that you just couldn’t break free from? As a personal productivity coach and leadership specialist, I’ve helped thousands of people from all walks of life to replace negative patterns with much more positive and beneficial ones. It’s not easy but you can do it…with a little bit of help.
Have you ever felt despair or even depression because of the overwhelming situation you were up against? Even with all the training I’ve acquired, I also struggled through a “dark night of the soul” in my early 30’s and I’ll tell you there were some crucial lessons that I learned that helped me to overcome those destructive patterns. I have a much more concise version that I’ll share with you today but trust me it is by no means easy. Especially to make changes when you’re facing extreme difficulties that affect you so deeply that your soul begins to become dry and full of despair.
Ok, before I show you a visual image of this process, allow me to quote a scripture from the book of 2 Timothy:
16 All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, 17 so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.
These two scriptures have often been used to describe the importance of allowing the ENTIRE bible to serve as a training guide, a success blueprint, a refining fire and a history of God’s attempt to commune with His creation. Something overlooked, however, is the importance of the person reading these scriptures and his/her ability to allow:
- teaching
- rebuking
- correcting
- training for righteousness
…to transform their life.
Breaking Free
So having two young children usually requires you to have a spare container of play-doh around. They make for very cheap entertainment as long as they’re kept in a soft, moldable state. But once they’ve hardened, your child is gonna get irritated quickly at their utter inability to be made into a make-believe animal or shape.
Humans are a LOT like that when we disallow our friends and family from giving us constructive criticism, correction and/or advice. We can be defensive or flat out obstinate for many reasons. Unfortunately, this is where the pitfall of pride can be our own worst enemy. We begin to believe that our negative circumstances cannot be changed and there’s very little we can do to improve our situation. Rather than quickly accept the wise counsel of people around us, we instead choose to do everything our own way.
I’ve been intrigued by the show, Intervention. Watching people choose to self-destruct and destroy not only their lives but the lives of those closest to them is strangely fascinating. We all know someone who’s been stuck in bad circumstances. We’ve probably all been THAT person. Regardless, I want you to look at the following picture and think of something you’ve struggled to overcome. Maybe you’re stuck right now. If so, I want you to consider what things might be keeping you stuck and which things might actually be available to get you unstuck.
Breaking the cycle
In conclusion, the key to getting out of a negative pattern is to leap…erupt…violently turn away from the thing in your life that has such a strong hold on your life. This not only requires you admitting what you struggle with but even letting someone else know and ask them for support. If anger is your struggle then come up with an alternative approach to handling yourself when anger is aroused. Rather than hit something or cuss at someone in your head, head to the gym. Your mind and the neurons that inhabit your grey matter literally have to be retrained to respond in a different way.
