Try another road

We all get stuck from time to time. We wanted to improve some aspect of our lives and gave our best effort and still came up short. It happens. It is frustrating and confusing but doesn’t have to be the end.

One of the disadvantages of the systems and habits approach to improvement is that we often spend significant time building up a new system before we have evidence that it is the right system to reach our stated goal.

After a few months of doing the difficult, grueling work to build the habit, we find that it isn’t working. It doesn’t result in improvement. It doesn’t get us closer to where we want to be.

If we aren’t careful, we can end up throwing out the baby with the bathwater. We shouldn’t shutter it all and go back. Instead, we should see it as an opportunity to start somewhere new. This new level might not be what you expected, but having this new platform on which to build the next system might be just what you need to grow further.

When we begin to see the systems and habits approach to improvement from this angle, we uncover massive opportunity. We now have more to leverage. We have more experience, more work, and more lessons.

If we disengage from the negative emotions of frustration, we gain clarity. While all that work that we thought would lead to success led to disappointment, that is all complete. It’s done. Now we can move on to the next attempt.

Just don’t give up. Keep going.

For some reason people become fascinated with revolutionary change over evolutionary change. We gravitate to the massive restructuring. We want to see everything thrown out and rebuilt anew.

But there has been more improvement over time through evolutionary change than evolutionary change. Sure, the forest fire that wipes away acres of trees creates opportunity for new plants to emerge. But by leveraging time, more plants emerge through the centuries of subtle changes in landscape.

Even most businesses see more value in the slow growth through evolutionary change. News media, authors, speakers, etc. will point to those revolutionary leaders that come in and clear house, firing as many people as possible to create something better.

But that promise of better often becomes different, not better. It doesn’t improve, it just changes it so drastically that they can always find aspects that improved. But you could also find as many aspects that deteriorated.

The point is that when you find yourself frustrated, ready to throw in the towel and give up all the work you have done, pause. Instead of stopping, strategize while you continue on.

I’ve often found that new opportunity suddenly presents itself that wasn’t there before. It wasn’t possible without the work you have done, the steps you took. But now, you can engage this opportunity with the experience and insight to drive it into a whole new area of success.

So, when you feel stuck, refresh your approach without blowing it up. Find ways to tweak the steps. Look for leverage points in the system that can be used to grow. Don’t assume it was all a waste just because it didn’t turn out exactly as you pictured.