Have you had that moment in life when, trying to juggle the kid’s supper and household chores with your last breath of energy after a long, draining day at the office, you think to yourself that something just isn’t right… you feel hopeless, listless and lost. This wasn’t what you planned for or dreamed of. This life doesn’t connect with the heartfelt picture you had of yourself and for your future.
You begin to analyse this nagging feeling and realise that somewhere along the line you’ve lost your direction in life.
I know that for me at that moment, I began a complex overanalysis of my life and the paths available to me. All this did was increase my anxiety and stress, because it wasn’t possible for me to predict the future or know the outcome of any of these paths. What I did know was that something in my life needed to change. I needed to realign myself, ensuring that who I was in the outside world reflected who I am on the inside, and that I was following a path that was true to this. But how was I going to do this?
Let me share what worked for me.
1. Stop Over-analysing and Overthinking…
How many sleepless nights have you spent endlessly worrying about problems that you KNOW you cannot do anything about at that moment? How many hours fretting over life’s unanswerable questions? Wrestling with yourself into the wee hours of the morning. All that time WASTED.
The hardest thing for me to accept was that no matter how much time I spent thinking about these things, there was no possible way I could truly know the outcomes or what would ultimately happen and worrying over it wouldn’t change anything. We cannot predict the future. We have so many influencing factors on our lives that it is impossible to say exactly where we will be in 5 or 10 years.
The idea is to focus on today, focus on now. Make your decisions based on how you feel at this moment, and what is important in your life right now. Life is unpredictable. Once we accept this, we can live in the present moment and open our minds to all the possibilities offered by today.
2. Do Something, Anything, Just Get into ACTION…
Doing something and taking action, ignites a sense of peace and control, making you feel better almost instantly. Instead of fretting over the unknown, you can focus on something concrete and controllable – your actions.
You may not be able to control the chaos of life but you DO have control of each word you speak, every thought you have and every action you take.
It doesn’t matter what action you take or where it leads to, you just need to start – you never know where that action will lead you.
3. Listen to Your Inner Voice…
We live in the information age. From morning to night we are bombarded with endless streams of data from multiple sources. Some of it is conflicting, causing confusion and can overwhelming you as you don’t know who and what to believe and trust.
Just stop over-analysing and listen to your intuition. By following your gut you will eventually found your way… Mine wasn’t a perfect journey, but by trusting what sat well with my inner voice, I was at least moving forward in a direction that felt right.
4. Believe in Yourself…
Most of us make the decision to try a something new, then we start doubting ourselves.
What if I am not good enough?
The thing to remember is that in life there will always be naysayers backing up your insecurities, those friends and family who tell you to play it safe. Who tell you that you have a good thing going and shouldn’t upset the status quo. Those voices are trapping you in a life you don’t love.
The alternative? You can choose to surround yourself with those friends and family who DO give encouragement and support. There is also a limitless supply of positive voices on the net. Social media, videos, and blogs all have volumes of material that can renew your belief in your abilities.
The great thing is the more you try and the more you do, the greater your belief in yourself will be. Just by carrying on you are proving how resilient you can be. Just by taking a step you are moving in the right direction… Forwards, towards a life you love.
By Debbie Taylor
