Free Your Mind! Your Potential Might Be Hiding Behind that Mountain!

Posted on April 28, 2017 by Frederica Peterson, One of Thousands of Executive Coaches on Noomii.

Moving mountains is a skill that is learned over time. Mountains come in our life for different reasons but a big culprit is victim mentality. This can literally lull us into a passive reality that we have it all together. Life brings its challenges, even big blows but we’re strong, yeah, we don’t need any help. The other day a friend said to me, “Women are used to dealing with stuff, I don’t need any help.” Yikes! Stop the presses! That is a pretty limiting statement. This is telling me your life is not where you want it to be and you have allowed yourself to believe that misery is just a lifestyle you have gotten used to. What the heck?!! With all do respect, get over yourself! It’s simply not true! You have chosen to be miserable. Yes, that’s right I said it, you chose it and you are continuing to choose it. Being a victim is easy being accountable is not.

Tell me if this sounds like anyone you know; there are some difficult choices / decisions they need to make but refuse to make them because of fear. So, they gladly choose to make other decisions that are only placating to their current situation and when things continue to get worse, they fall back on, “I am trying but the world is against me and nothing seems to work.” Sigh…not only do I know people like that, it used to be me! My decisions to make things better were based on what I knew I could control (or so I thought) but in reality all it did was continue to take me around the same issue over and over again. All because I would not face up to what I really needed to do. Why? Fear. Here is what I know to be true because I have lived it time and time again. When we do finally stand up to that fear and try to work through it trials will still come, they have to. Just because you stood up to it doesn’t mean the mountain is going to move. How much effort does it take to move a mountain? A lot and you have to be persistent. There’s a lot of skill, struggle and grit involved with moving a mountain. Actually the struggle is where the real growth happens because when you have finally conquered that mountain and you look at where you started vs. where you are now, you will be astonished! Not only will you be in a different place you will be stronger, wiser and carrying less “baggage.” It will prepare you for the next mountain.

When you consider it our lives are full of mountains with different sizes, shapes and configurations. The funny thing is, we were built to be able to move our mountains. Every experience and challenge we face in our life equips us for the mountain that is “on the horizon.” Frankly I am convinced that mountains come when it is time for us to go into our next season. They are literally standing in the way of allowing us to move forward so we have to get to work to move that thing out of the way! When we get proficient at moving mountains it becomes less challenging to make the transition to the new season of our life but when we let that mountain just sit there and grow and don’t try to move it until our lives have become dark and empty we can’t move it by ourselves. We need help because we waited so long we aren’t strong enough and don’t have the skills or knowledge necessary to do the job alone.

Having help every now and again isn’t a bad thing it is a human thing. The minute we believe we have it all together and don’t need anyone that’s a pretty good indication that mountains are on the horizon. When we just “deal” with things as we go and continue to stuff them away and let them fester the reality is, we are not present. How can we be? If you are not dealing with something then you are dulling your senses to it so that “thing” doesn’t distract you from moving on. Believe me it is still there, you have just taught yourself how to tune it out. Here is the challenge, there are other things attached to that “thing” you have tuned out? So, what does that look like? Well, it could be an over sensitivity to things people say to you. Remember, you have that big hematoma on your heart that you are covering but you are the only one that knows it’s there. That wound doesn’t allow our emotional filter to function properly. So, when someone says something to you that agitates your wound you react. For example, someone says to you, “how’s your day going?” Well, because of your broken filter you may react something like this, “What did they mean by that?” or “Why are they asking me that, are they planning on firing me? ” or “Mmm hmmm, just trying to make up for what you did to me yesterday;” mind you, they had no clue they offended you yesterday?

Let me help you out, you should know that prolonged wounds create delusional scenarios that you hang on to forever because those emotional wounds need food to stay alive. So if you twist everything in your mind to feed that wound, it is no wonder you think the whole world is against you.

I can assure you, a change in perspective can free you from that bondage but you have to be ready and willing to make the necessary changes in your thought patterns. The challenge is that it will require you to move a couple of mountains. The more you let your wounds fester, the larger your mountains become. So you will need a partner to help you move some of those mountains. They will help you work around those blind spots and motivate you to keep going when you want to quit, because moving mountains are no easy task. It is hard, messy and sometimes painful but the result is joy, fulfillment and most importantly your potential is no longer at risk. Our mountains like to keep our potential hidden from us. The better you get at moving them the stronger and more resilient you become and nothing in this world can stop you from reaching your potential!

Inspired by Frederica’s new virtual class “Transitions with Frederica.” For more information visit www.uniqueinsightscoaching.com/classes