Learning when to take a step back

Today's blog has come quite easily to me and is something that even as a Life Coach, I need to tell myself over and over.

We constantly strive to be the best we can, we are told to push to the limit, get out of our comfort zone, reach all the goals we want to reach and everything that we want, with some hard work we can get.

This is all great, but there comes a point, where actually, it's time to review the situation and stop pushing.  It by no means equates to failure, but rather, a change in the road we are following, and we can continue our path of success down a slightly different route.

If you are at work, working your socks off, and pushing, pushing for promotion. You know you can do the job, you know you deserve it but the promotion is not coming. You get out of your comfort zone and ask your boss for that promotion, and your boss tells you it's not quite the right time. Do you give up and sit back at your desk for another year? You cannot push any further, but you can change your route, and perhaps look outside the organisation you're in now, and look for that promotion as a new job, and probably a bigger salary. Not giving up, but changing your route.

If you have a friend who you put a lot of time and effort in, you invite her to all your "do's", take her kids out when she is at work, laugh at her jokes and think about when you're both old and reminiscing about the olden days whilst your grandkids are playing in the park together. And then you wonder why she never returns the invitations. You're not invited back to her house, not part of the party and only called on for emergency babysitting. Do you push the friendship or do you step back and ask yourself what you are getting out of it? If you're life long dream is to be a charity babysitter then keep going, but if you're after an equal friendship (surely if this was your other half, you wouldn't accept this behaviour would you?), then time to change the path and seek an alternative one, taking your social skills you've learned with you for the next lucky person.

And finally, when you decide you can be a cordon bleu chef, you "throw" together an amazing concoction of herbs and spices, mixed in with your mince and veg, lightly cooked over a medium heat, a little more herbs, a secret chunk of dark chocolate, another spoonful of ready crushed garlic, toss it all around and serve on a bed of quinoa and chickpea with pepper and banana jus...... and your guests are suddenly so full up from their melon starter that they can't possibly eat all their main course... it's time to either progress by booking yourself on a cookery course, or simplifying the menu for next time and make your Grandma's recipe of shepherds pie, just as everyone remembers and loves.

GO for it, but stop when you need to!
xx