Introspection and Success
How often do we blame external circumstances when we’re stopped in our tracks? “It’s a recession, I can’t start the business of my dreams.” “Well, nobody can get clients right now, look at the economy.” “It’s not a good time to approach my boss with his kid sick and everything.” “Once I get through tax season I’ll finally have the time to sit down and write that proposal.”
There’s always a ready excuse. But what if external circumstances had nothing to do with our success?
I make my living helping business and creative professionals find their true path and get on it. That includes identifying not only their purpose, but the blocks keeping them from getting there. And it’s never external circumstances. For every excuse I have a success story. I keep a list of businesses that have started, thrived, and grown during the hardest of financial times and people who have overcome the greatest of external obstacles to realize their dreams. I dole these out like a Pez dispenser to counter the folly of leaning on the pattern. Because whatever external circumstance we choose to blame, is usually the window into seeing the pattern that is the block.
In all the time I’ve been doing this, and with all the companies and individuals I’ve worked with, I’ve never seen a business fail because of a bad idea. It’s always a human problem at the core.
So imagine my glee when fellow dreamer Barbara forwarded this article from the Sunday Times on the value of introspection for success! Each individual example in the story is one of identifying a repetitive pattern, seeing how it is holding the person back, and then changing behavior to overcome it. Not a bad chef in the kitchen, not a faulty tennis racket … Pattern.
My teacher Rabbi Gershon Winkler has often cited a 16th century Rabbi (reference escaping me now) who says that all of the energy invested in the maintaining of the pattern becomes all of the energy we have available for our good and development once we shift it… and more.
What patterns have you identified before that you’ve been able to overcome to get over a creative or business block?
