Want a simple way to get unstuck instantly in your life, mood, or career?
What if I told you that successful people use this behavior all the time to get unstuck and accomplish their goals? You would want to know about it, wouldn’t you?
Of course you would.
I share this with my clients and use it myself.
Alright already, Flora! What is this simple way that to get unstuck?!
Happiness researchers have discovered one simple thing that can get us unstuck is intentional activity.
What is Intentional Activity?
We humans are active creatures, spending energy on many projects and goals. When we get stuck such as in writer’s block or indecision about what direction to take in our lives, we stop taking action.
- The blocked writer sits there staring at the blank page.
- The career person in transition gets paralyzed by indecision.
- The entrepreneur freezes while creating her information product.
Simply explained, intentional activity is taking action on purpose, doing something, putting forth an effort, doing something different.
Have you ever misplaced your keys and built up stress as you frantically searched for them?
Then, you decided to give up the search and do something else, maybe go to the kitchen to make a sandwich or gather the books you’ll take with you when you find the keys.
Voila! When you returned to the room where you started, there the keys were, exactly where they were all along.
Another example.
I worked on the 2nd edition of Color Your Life Happy for nine months (yes, it was almost like giving birth,) After having approved the cover, index, and approved changes from three editors, I tweaked the layout eighteen times. After one more pass by the proofreader, I decided it was good enough and published it. I took the intentional activity of letting go.
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Why Intentional Activity Gets You Unstuck
Intentional activity works instantly because when you take action you put yourself in a different location, frame of mind, and perspective. You interrupt the obsession, the mulling, the inner conflict, the fear.
All the world’s problems are not solved in an instant, of course, but I assure you that by engaging in intentional activity you are no longer stuck at the same place where you were before.
What is the right action to get you unstuck?
Almost anything that suits you that is different from what has you stuck.
Sometimes we are stuck waiting to have all the answers or while nursing the delusion of perfection.
How Intentional Activity Works in Creative Projects?
It gives you valuable information.
Fail fast, fail cheap, and fail often is a common mantra of successful entrepreneurs.
When you have an idea for a product, service or business it’s important to do some planning, of course, but the sooner you can test your idea in the marketplace the faster you’ll know if there is a market and if your idea is viable.
The early adopters of your idea can give you priceless feedback that enables you to make adjustments before you dump a huge sum of money taking an untested idea to completion.
When Walt Disney proposed the idea of Disneyland to bankers, he was already a successful graphic artist and movie maker, and yet he was turned away by bankers over 300 times before he finally found one willing to take a chance. After all, who could believe that such a preposterous idea would work, much less be profitable? But Walt, familiar with rejection and failure, was undaunted.
Each fertile idea Disney proposed seemed to be met with skepticism. Naysayers saw Mickey Mouse as just another cartoon. His detractors predicted that moviegoers would not sit through a full-length animated movie. And yet, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs became one of the biggest grossing movies in movie history.
So, when you’re stuck, get unstuck instantly by doing something.
Get up and do something else.
- Launch your project and get feedback.
- Go for a walk.
- Take a tea or coffee break.
- Turn on music and dance or exercise.
- Make some noise.
- Call a friend for a chat.
- Take a nap.
- Clean out your sock drawer.
Sometimes you’re so stuck that you lose your confidence and can’t seem to move forward. That’s when you can use the ideas I share in Getting Unstuck: How to Get Your Confidence Back and Follow Your Dream.
What do you think?
Have you discovered that taking action got you unstuck and helped you successfully reach your goal?
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