Keep going…until

Various studies have shown that perseverance is an essential quality for success in life. It often tops aptitude and raw talent as a predictor of achievement.

Knowing that can be helpful. When stuff starts to get hard, when you start to doubt yourself, it can be a helpful reminder: I don’t have to know everything, I don’t have to be the best, I just have to keep going.

But this Just Keep Going approach can come unstuck.

I have a whole lot of high-performing clients who can just PUSH THROUGH! But that focus often deafens them to the messages their bodies and brains are sending them, about what they really need, in that moment.

Singular perseverance can come at a cost. You might achieve the immediate goal. But your health is affected. Or your trajectory towards the life you really want is compromised.

There’s no quick fix-it solution here. Goal-striving and achievement are really important elements of a life well lived. So you still want that.

But you also you want to be discerning. You also want to be able to listen to the whispers in between, that tell you if a goal isn’t working for you. You want to be able to hear that and then, instead of feeling like a failure, be able to engage in active goal-disengagement. To re-orient your efforts.

Tags: career-coaching, life-coaching, Melbourne