When Being Driven Takes You to the Dark Side
Written by Melanie Benson Strick
As an entrepreneur we are trained to focus on results – make more money, get more clients, sell more products, and achieve more recognition. It becomes easy to let these hard numbers dictate our daily levels of success, happiness, and even survival.
In order to get more results, many of us condition ourselves to rise above our mental and physical limitations. We challenge ourselves to achieve the unimaginable in record time. Often we look around at everyone else, notice what (we think) they are accomplishing, compare ourselves to their success, feel behind, and say, “I should be doing that too!”
We may even find ourselves spouting wisdom from these high achievers with mantras designed to push past our comfort zone such as:
“Come on don’t give up now, you can do it, push a little harder, just finish up these 10 projects THEN you can go to bed.”
At least, I know I have been here; and still can catch myself in my default mode of hyper-drive with a million to-do’s in record time.
So here’s an opportunity for you to shift deeper into most successful self…
When does it make sense to stop pushing from the “long list of to do’s and the drive to be more” and shift gears into being enough?
Is there a trigger that causes you to default into hyper-drive, struggling to achieve what ego wants (versus staying committed to your genius?)
And do you catch yourself doing things from the space of “being driven” that you later realize were a complete departure from your truth?
Here’s what I’ve discovered about myself.
I have a great strength in achieving extraordinary results in record time.
When I was born the doctor told my mother, “This one will survive anything. You’ll never have to worry about her.”
What she should have said is, “This one has been born to push and struggle her whole life in order to achieve her ego’s desire.”
Whoa.
Huge a-ha.
There is a fine line between challenging ourselves to overcome our perceived limitations and creating a life experience of struggle to keep up with what we think we SHOULD have.
I realized that somewhere along the way I graduated from “challenging myself” to a condition of struggling unnecessarily.
I’m not exactly sure when or where I created this pattern but what I do know is that in this New Era of Entrepreneurship struggle does not work!
Struggle stops the flow of inspired action and in essence shuts off our most essential element of success – passion. It moves us away from our genius and into copying others without any real connection to our truth.
Now if you are thinking to yourself, “I don’t get this, I don’t struggle”, then take a minute and really check in. Do you really never struggle? Do you not push yourself ridiculously hard to achieve things you have no real need for anymore? Do you not feel tired and unmotivated but find yourself glued to the computer screen because it’s still light outside? What if we redefined “working hours” and only applied inspired action when we were really juiced up?
Just so we are on the same page, I’m not saying we shouldn’t work hard at times. I’m saying there is a HUGE difference between pushing and struggling to achieve something and being in inspired action where our actions are in flow with our genius.
Have the wisdom to know the difference and your big ideas will take off like wild-fire.
So what have you been struggling with? Share it in the comments below…
Article author
About the Author
Most entrepreneurs are continually battling overwhelm with too many things to do, opportunities to capture and money to make! Melanie Benson Strick, CEO of Success Connections and The Big Idea Catalyst, shows entrepreneurs how to stop feeling overwhelmed so they can create more money, have a bigger impact and enjoy their life more in the process.
Discover how to unleash the Entrepreneur’s Secret Weapon in your business today and get on the fast-track to a freedom based business. Get on the fast track to time freedom today with a free copy of 101 Ways to Triple Your Income & Time Off at http://www.successconnections.com/101ways.
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