New Paths, New Emotions – ElPropósito4 min de lectura

What to do when a new path fits your Purpose and still feels wrong

Photo by Jaromír Kavan on Unsplash

One of the dilemmas that torments me most goes like this: I decide on something new for my life, get completely fired up, take the first step in the new direction, cover a good stretch and suddenly feel everything is going wrong. Handling all kinds of emotions at those moments while staying focused has become one of my main tools. The hardest moments after a decision are when we have the best chance to learn how to get what we want. Read on to see what to do.

In many posts I’ve stressed that every decision should start out aligned with our Life Purpose, or lead us toward it. That takes a good dose of humility and courage to accept that we have a special calling on this earth and that new decisions mean big changes to what we may be doing now.

Setting out on a new path that gives life meaning brings a real boost to every area of our wellbeing. Still, we have to know there will always be a temptation to go back to the familiar, to what already makes us feel safe. In short, to the comfort zone. That zone is full of habits, behaviors, beliefs, plenty of security and complete mastery. Ironically, that same comfort zone is often what makes us uncomfortable.

Once we’re well down the new path and know we’ve left our safe zone behind, stumbles are normal. They usually show up as doubts and an insatiable urge to go back to the familiar. However hard the stumble, it’s a chance to discover new strategies for moving forward.

In tough moments, staying focused comes first. Concentrating on the original goal comes from trust, and that trust has to rest on the conviction that the new path brings us closer to our Life Purpose and on the lessons we gather along the way. Those lessons become new strategies that show us we can weather the blows and, happily, how to handle new obstacles, since they tend to be of the same kind.

Life comes down to choices and the time we have to get the results we want. The ambition to conquer many horizons at once is a big temptation, and juggling many goals often makes us forget that resources are limited, our time above all. Trying to conquer every path at once also makes the pull back to the old, familiar comfort zone even stronger. Balance comes from setting priorities and sticking to them.

Even if every new path brought us closer to our Life Purpose, prioritizing and choosing would still be our greatest duty. The reward is the balance and confidence we need so badly in the hardest moments, whenever an obstacle appears.

Warm regards and all the best,

Rodrigo Baccaro

"It is not by failure that a man should be judged, but by his lack of effort. In the end, a man is judged individually and never as part of a mass." The Physician (Taylor Caldwell)

Médico de Cuerpos y Almas

P.S. This week’s V.E.L.A.:

• What I’ve been Viewing: How Bill Gates reads books. After watching the Bill Gates documentary on Netflix, and with my personal challenge of reading at least one book a week, I came across this great video, which I’m sharing in the hope you enjoy it. It’s especially for anyone who sees reading as a cornerstone of leadership and of their future.
• What I’ve been Listening to: Your mental health and your work. A great podcast worth your time. The silence around mental health, and its impact on every stakeholder in a company, is a debate that keeps gaining ground.
• What I’ve been Reading: Strategy. Since I have the chance to teach a course as important as Strategy at the university, I chose some readings on this great subject for my students. A good book I recommend to anyone who wants to dig deep into this wonderful topic.
• What I’ve been Learning: Innovation Implementation. A Harvard course worth the investment. Innovation is touching every link in companies’ value chains, improving them and often reinventing them entirely. That brings changes of every shape and size, and how to handle them is part of the course. I recommend it.

Author: Rodrigo Baccaro

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