It’s safe to say that I am s-t-r-u-g-g-l-i-n-g this week.

A text message before 6am that the computer at the gym broke, two member cancellation notices by 1:30pm, a call at 2:30pm that my daughter has a fever and what appears to be hand-foot-and-mouth, work piling up amidst 1,001 distractions that need immediate attention, and an overwhelming feeling that I’m going to fail at everything I’m involved in—and that’s just Monday.

But I’m not here to vent, promise.  Rather, I want to introduce a really simple question we can ask ourselves in times like these…

 

“Is it true?”

“Beneath every stressful emotion sits a thought—a thought that may or may not actually be true.  Once you question the validity of the thought, the accompanying stress in the mind and body starts to fall away.”

– From the book “Start Here” by Eric Langshur and Nate Klemp, PhD

So in the midst of a week like the one I’m currently experiencing, I simply ask the question: Is it true that I’m going to fail at everything I’m involved in?

Of course not.

But that’s easy for me to just say, right?  We need to look at the facts.

While it sucks the computer went down, making typically menial tasks at the gym a huge pain in the neck, it’s temporary.  Turns out the power source went, and it’s a simple $70 fix—easy peasy.  It will be back up and running tomorrow morning.

Those cancellations?  A part of doing business.  As much as we’d like to have every member for life, people move, have babies, lose jobs, and all kinds of other normal, completely out of our control reasons.  The reality is that we’ve been having record growth.  But we feel pain oh-so-much-more than we feel the pleasure sometimes.  So in times like this we simply need to reflect on the amazing reality of where we’re at and where we’re going.  Yup, we’re doing just fine.

My daughter really was sick—BUT, that’s nothing more than an opportunity to spend time with her that I normally would not have on a weekday.  She woke up yesterday fever-free, and after a quick trip to the doctors it seems that she’s already past the worst of it.  So we enjoyed some quality time together running around the house, watching a movie (Leap!), cartoons (Boss Baby has a show now?!), and taking a ride on her rad tricycle through the neighborhood.  Plus, I was able to get my most pressing work done when she went down for her two naps—pretty awesome Tuesday, if you ask me…

And from one last check of the facts, I’m not failing at ANYTHING I’m involved in.  All the businesses are growing, and there are lots of awesome opportunities on the horizon.  For the little bit of backslide that just happened, we’re still at record highs and growing—far from failure.

So what’s this vicious thought cycle that has crept in this week?

 

Success Suicide

The act of self-sabotage that occurs when an old self-image is being replaced with a new and better self-image.  Also called the breakdown before the breakthrough, this is a self-imposed barrier that blocks people from the next level of success.

-From the book “The Seven Levels of Communication” by Michael J. Maher

I’ve experienced it myself, and I’ve seen it with plenty of people… things always seem really bad right before they get really good.  I’m not going to get all mystical on you here, but it seems like the world wants to kill our momentum right when it’s about to pay off.  We start telling ourselves all kinds of stories: we’re not good enough, we don’t deserve this, we’ll never make it.  So we stop.

Bad. Idea.

Whether you’re training and cleaning up your nutrition for fat loss, trying to build a business, working towards a promotion at work—essentially anything—success suicide will creep in and attempt to derail your momentum.

That’s when use the ol’ trusty, “Is it true?”

I discovered that when I believed my thoughts, I suffered, but that when I didn’t believe them, I didn’t suffer, and that this is true for every human being.  Freedom is as simple as that.  I found that suffering is optional.  I found a joy within me that has never disappeared.

– Byron Katie

 

You’ve Got This!

So long as you’ve created a plan to accomplish whatever it is you’re after, check in on the facts regularly, and keep doing the little things day in and day out, you’ll be blown away by how success just falls in your lap.

And when success suicide creeps in to try and knock you off the rails, which it will, get curious and ask if it’s true.  Address the facts, adjust as necessary, and keep going.