Hello hello and happy Thursday listeners! Coach Kate here with another Minute Motivation this beautiful day. I host this space weekday mornings to give some reflection, share some quotes or passages, and even dive into things I come across that I find interesting and want to share along the way. If that sounds like a space you want to be a part of too, feel free to give me a follow or subscribe and follow along these weekday mornings.
Today I wanted to dive into this feeling of being stuck. This feeling can manifest in many different ways but it can feel all consuming and even hopeless. Maybe you feel stuck in a situation you don't like, a relationship you've grown out of, maybe it's a dead-end job, or that the scale isn't moving. Maybe it's debt that is stacking up month after month, or it could even just be that you've had chicken for dinner every night this week and you are over it. The thing about being stuck is that it's an acute awareness, and we cna reframe it as a door instead of a wall. I say that because we cannot change the things we don't recognize, and recognizing that you are unhappy and not liking your current situation is often the first step to making changes instead. Sometimes the door is obvious, for example, you can probably make other things for dinner from what you already have on hand, or go to the store and get it. Other times, we have to bulldoze down that wall to create that door and this all goes back to the tolerance we carry for our situation we want to change. Often complacency prevents us from taking steps towards actionable change. But we can change that if we start askign ourselves what is it that we want out of life and start calling ourselves out instead.
Today's quote that inspired this talk is from Steve Jobs, a tech visionary with a relentless work ethic that brought us most of the apple products we know and use today.
“For the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: ‘If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?’ And whenever the answer has been ‘No’ for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something.”
Steve Jobs
There are a few parts of this quote that really stand out to me when I think of making a change and getting unstuck in my own life. One, the ability to ask yourself is this what you want, or even to ask yourself if you are happy is a great opportunity to be honest with yourself about your current situation. Sometimes complacency gets swept under the rug and we will go with the flow until something forces us to confront it. By forcing ourselves every morning to confront ourselves with the hard question, we give ourselves the ability to make intentional choices on how we live our life-- and that is powerful. One scenario is passive-- letting life happen to us, and the other is intentional-- letting ourselves take the reigns and responsibility not only for our life but our happiness as well.
The other thing that stand out to me in Steve Job's quote is the grace he gives himself to say no multiple days. We all have moments of disatisfaction, and sometimes they are fleeting or are eveloped in the tedious things we must do to survive. It's totally okay to have a few days where you are unhappy or that you are not satisfied with your life. What Steve Jobs is saying here, is that if you zoom out, and you recognize that that answer No is governing your life, it's time to make some changes.
So, today, if you are feeling stuck in your life, I hope you tap into that brave part of you that is willing to confront yourself and start whatever it takes to get you a little bit closer to your dreams. It can be hard to get unstuck. And often it can feel overwhelming and even scary to take actionable steps to put new things in motion-- but one day you'll look back at this moment, and you'll be so proud of brave little you who decided to get scared and do it anyway.
I'm Coach Kate, thank you for joining me again today for another Minute Motivation. If you liked what you heard today, feel free to give me a follow. Tomorrow I'll be back for more of a conversation style talk later in the morning so that you can bring some of your ideas, thoughts, quotes, and intentions to the table too, and we can all go over them together.
Thanks again for listening, and don't forget to ask yourself: if today were the last day of your life, would you want to do what you are about to do today?
And then don't be afraid to answer it with action.
If today were the last day of your life, would you want to do what you are about to do today?
