Are you swimming against the current in your life right now? Are trying so hard to push yourself further ahead because you’re unhappy or unfulfilled with where you’re at right now? Are you struggling to get to where you’d like to go and is it taking you longer than you’d like?
If you look at the current mental health statistics, there is legitimate evidence to show how wanting a different reality than the one we’re faced with, is leading to mental health crisis. We are constantly exposed to all sorts of media, displaying how other people are achieving and succeeding, getting what they want and doing what they love. We look at ourselves in comparison and judge ourselves as being inferior or not good enough. We think we’re moving too slow and so we decide we need to pick up the pace, put the pressure on and push harder. Then, we hit a brick wall, an obstacle, a challenge or a hurdle, that just slows everything down. We get tired, lose motivation, feel defeated and just want to give up. Does any of this sound familiar to you?
I have been down this road on several occasions in my life. Constantly swimming upstream because I wanted to achieve some kind of goal in my life quicker than was actually possible. I tried desperately to push back against nature in order to win but nature always pushed back, to the same degree. I often felt like a failure, like there was something wrong with me and I questioned why other people could make it in life but I kept on struggling through a never ending cycle of punishment. For every time that I tried this approach, I learnt the lesson but it didn’t ever fully sink it or I didn’t fully integrate it. Then I thought of something and it kind of hit me square in the face.
When you let go of trying to control the outcomes in life, you can reach your end point much faster.
How does that work? Think about it like this. Think about being in the ocean and getting caught in a rip current. Most people try to swim back to shore but are often swimming against the current. This usually what leads to exhaustion and drowning. In order to exit out of a rip current, there are two things you can do:
- Let go and allow the current to take you further out. The more you remain calm and don’t fight it, the greater the chance of coming back to shore. Once you’ve cleared the current, you can start swimming parallel to the shore and then back in. If you are too tired and can’t do it alone, ask for help.
- Swimming parallel to the shore, across the current. It only take about 100 - 150 meters before you exit a current.
These strategies are what will always save you in a difficult situation. The worst thing you can do is panic. The wisest approach is to let go. You’ll actually conserve energy and get into a better position to allow you to move forward so you can navigate out of the situation you’re in. Our instinct is to fight because we fear that our survival is threatened. The hardest part is being mindful in the moment and taking the opposite action.
If you’d like to break this cycle, conserve your energy and get the results you’ve been working so hard to achieve, contact me at info@gregschreeuwer.com for a complimentary consult and learn how you can get nature to start working in your favour.