Appreciation: Looking in the Rearview Mirror

In the business of change, my favorite time is right at the beginning, when the inspiration is new. There's a clear vision. The creative sap is running and I feel in the ‘flow’. There's a notable sense of purpose and a palpable sense of direction and the next step is as obvious as getting my next meal. It's sort of like river tubing: not as thrilling as white water rafting, but not as soporific as floating on a raft in a pool, either. If you're like me, after some weeks of good progress, we may start to feel stalled. What can we do to get the ‘flow’ back?
Here are some rather specific suggestions that might help. It all begins with taking ourselves back to the beginning.
1. Revisit the original inspiration. Remember what it was, and what it felt like.
2. Appreciate how far we've come since then. List the victories and areas of progress. What goals have we achieved? What significant measurables are on track? Instead of focusing on those things that haven't seemed to move, appreciate all those things that have.
3. Appreciate where we are today — not just how far we've progressed in our pursuit of the original inspiration, but appreciate how much our inspiration itself has changed! Every day, we start from a new place, quite different from our original point of origin or even yesterday's inspiration. This needs to be appreciated.
4. Recapture the original vision. Appreciate the goodness and beauty of where we wanted to be when all was said and done. Don't hesitate to see that vision as ‘good’ and ‘beautiful’ because, if it wasn't, it isn't worth pursuing.
5. Create a new vision that works for today. It may be similar to our original vision, or quite different. Today will be tomorrow's past. A ‘past’ vision will not take us forward.
6. Realign today's vision with the universal Ideals. How will our vision promote diversity? Where will it bring increased order? How will it build complexity on the foundations we laid yesterday?
7. Review our goals for the next two weeks. Are they Specific? Measurable? Achievable? Relevant to our vision? Time-dimensioned?
8. Revisit our significant measurables to see if they are reflecting our current goals and awarenesses. Revise our control methods to make sure that our efforts are directed specifically to our revised goals.
9. Get to work. All the successful planning in the world can't make up for lethargy. Move a muscle, change a thought. ‘Just do it.’
There's an old saying that goes: “Death is nature's way of telling you to slow down.” If discernment means getting in touch with our intuition, then appreciation means putting into action what we've learned. Staleness is awareness's way of telling us we're either in a rut or distracted and off on a tangent. We can use this experience to re-establish our ‘I.V.A.’: Inspiration, Vision, and Action. It means that we're not locked into a boring, purposeless present. We can start over any time we choose to. That's what happens when we rekindle our IVA: we get to start over afresh. Perhaps we need to do that every day. We may even need to do it more than once a day.
We're not victims of our circumstances. We always have a choice. Whenever we feel like saying, ‘I can't do this anymore!’ it's time replace that can't with a good won't. Once we've been able to say ‘I won't do this!’ then we have to ask ourselves, then what will we do now? No need to look outside ourselves for the answer to that question: the next step is always up to us alone. Analyze it, appreciate it, then make it happen. Remember, if it's not perfect, we get to do it all over again tomorrow!

Appreciation: Looking in the Rearview Mirror - To learn more about this author, visit Les Brown's Website.

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