I have the answer to what’s holding you back:  A lack of positive inertia.

A recent client approached me for coaching to build a million-dollar business.  I asked him about his closest relationships.  He named five:

• The first was a single mother living at poverty level in a 9-5 job, with serious, on-going health issues and most likely depression.
• An angry single father, with part-time custody of his children, who worked 2 jobs just to make ends meet, but constantly complained about a lack of time, money and joy in his life.
• A older, unemployed widowed woman, deeply depressed, in serious health, financial and emotional problems, who wished only for an early, natural death as an answer to her pain
• A woman literally stuck in a loveless marriage, wanting to leave but unable to gather the courage, energy or clarity to do so; a woman whose life is largely occupied with caring for her child and distracting herself from her problems
• A financially strapped, emotionally worn out woman, freshly out of her relationship, self employed (but not rich by any means) and pretty darn unhappy with life

It was no surprise when I asked my client where his life was:  unhappily single, deep in debt, deep in depression and deeply disorganized… just like his closest friends.

A Sheep Mentality

It’s not a truism that our life has to be like our friends… but it’s a truism that our life usually IS.  Our associations are a huge influence.  The situations of our five closest relationships form a wonderfully simple and telling test for out own life.  Name their life circumstances and you’re likely to name the same roadblocks, challenges and stumbling blocks you’re facing.

It goes deeper than our associations:  Most people’s “sheep mentality” doesn’t so much have to do with following others as it does with following *the trend* (what ever the current “trend” – upwards, stagnant or downwards – is).

For example look at the front page of LifeSuccessEngine.com. Despite the fact that Life Success Engine is available EVERY day to set goals on, track your goals or take action, MOST people don’t.  Instead they visit and read without ever committing out loud to their goals or life progress.

Every six months the Life Success Engine 21-Day Challenge comes along, a challenge to set a goal and work towards success for 21 days.  What happens?  Most people wait to see what everyone else is going to do.  “Will others join?”  “Are people really going to post their goals publicly?”  “Should I do the Challenge?”

Tentatively, one person will put up a goal. 

Then another… and maybe another.  But only THEN will most people commit, often only days or hours before the Challenge starts.  It’s simply too scary for MOST to commit by themselves by posting a goal until EVERYONE ELSE starts doing the same.

Inertia:

• A Body at Rest Tends To Stay at Rest;
• A Body in Motion Tends To Stay in Motion

Life is largely comprised of inertia, either upwards… stagnant… or downwards.  And your energy and inertia affect your energy and inertia; your action (or lack) affects your actions (or lack).  Any event can start the cycle and a repeat of that action (or the same quality of action) will only further reinforce the direction, upwards… stagnant… or downwards.

If you’ve been avoiding your fears, living a small life and focusing mostly on your disappointments, the question is:  will you follow that trend?  Or buck the trend?

These facts are both your downfall AND your salvation.  Avoid your fears and it becomes a downfall:  it encourages you to further avoid your fears by avoiding action.  BUT… take an action, no matter how small, and it encourages you to take another action. 

Here’s your homework for the week:

1. Go to the Life Success Engine Forum
2. Start a new thread to look at your closest 5 relationships, naming their situations and looking for similar problems in YOUR life.  Name what matches.
3. Choose, name and take an action – buying a Membership on TLS, hiring a Life Coach, writing out your goal or starting it immediately – that will start an upward trend for that area for you.  Use your thread to explore your own “sheep mentality” while you redirect YOUR inertia!

PS  How much do you want to bet – 100 to 1 – that 99% of the people reading this, YOU included… will respond to this call to action by following the inertia you’ve already built up in your life; that most who follow the link above will first look to see if anyone else is doing it, before committing to their own success!

Don’t be “that guy”! YOU be the first to break the cycle, take action and choose your own direction:  UP!

Whatever you want in life – to start a business, obtain a graduate degree, or find the love of your life – I’ve led thousands of people in reaching dreams just like yours. And I KNOW you’re capable of reaching success with the help of my coaching. Reach out now and I’ll even offer you the first session for free!

Start here, start now!

Mark is a master goal setter. He has done what he teaches… He wants you to succeed…
~ Dick McLean