5 Reminders For When You Feel Like You’re Not Making Any Progress In Life
You can shift at any moment.
Maybe you have put your work on the back burner. Maybe your motivation feels like it’s running dry. Whatever that might entail, it’s important to remember progress doesn’t have an expiration date. Your progress doesn’t have to be completed in one day, one week, or even one year, so you cannot let that deter you from growth. Your motivation can begin at any point. You can shift at any moment. You can kick start changes today. Even now.
You are likely being too hard on yourself.
Given the opportunity, that voice in your head will continuously criticize you. If you allow it to fester, you can drag yourself down without even moving. Contrarily, you can take a deep breath. Remember that voice in your head is often just chatter. It’s often a result of what you are allowing yourself to focus on most. And instead, you can use that voice to act as a supporter. Get yourself busy, take actions first, and your mind will react to what you are exposed to. You are only human and you deserve to be nothing less than kind to yourself as you evolve.
Progress is not linear.
Despite what we see from social media, people we admire, or those who have what we want, success does not come all at once. People do not wake up one day achieving all that they hoped for. It takes time. It takes ebbs and flows. Stops and go’s. It takes moments of progression and advancement and moments of second-guessing and momentary uncertainty. But regardless of what your journey looks like, you must keep going. Even if it’s just one-step today, another step tomorrow. Keep going. Keep pushing forward.
Maybe it is a wake up call.
It’s easy to look at a setback as just that: an awful and unfair circumstance that inhibits your growth. But moments of frustration and self-doubt can be turned into important propellers for change. Getting angry or feeling stuck is often your mind telling you something needs to be altered. It means it’s time to get clear on what is important to you, and alternatively, what isn’t. Maybe you haven’t been satisfied with the way things have unfolded in the past, but that doesn’t mean you aren’t allowed to change this narrative. Let this fuel you. Let this remind you that you do have the power to progress.
Done is better than perfect.
Perhaps the reason you have put your progress on halt is because you are expecting perfection. Your expectations for your progress are so high that it defers you from even trying. Because the truth is, if you want to make progress, you have to allow for mistakes. You have to allow for messiness. Being rough around the edges. You have to understand that perfection or even success doesn’t come without errors. Which is why you must let go of chasing perfection and instead just focus on doing. Focus on practicing. Creating. Learning. Just focus on just taking action and adjusting as you go. That’s how you progress.