Have you fallen off track?

written by MO.com Subject Matter Resource Kim Ades

Here are some signs…

1. You are tired

2. You’ve had an injury of sorts

3. You have aches and pains and/or body malfunctions (i.e. acne breakouts, sore throat, etc..)

4. You are irritable and short on patience

5. You are easily bothered by other people’s actions (or inactions)

6. You have accidents

7. You have ‘bad luck’ and it shows up in little ways

8. Things that are normally easy and fluid become complicated and hard

9. You are anxious and have trouble sleeping

10. You eat things that really don’t agree with you

We all fall off track every now and then, and if we are not quick to notice the signs and readjust, it can have a very deep and lasting impact on some critical areas of our lives: our health, our relationships, our career, and our finances.

But falling off track is a rather normal human condition. It’s not a reflection of human weakness, but rather a sign of change ahead. We’ve often heard that change is inevitable. Unfortunately, with change often comes insecurity, confusion, and resistance, and this is ultimately what causes us to fall off course.

Even the most accomplished individuals sometimes lose their way. We witness this with actors who engage in self-destructive behaviors and are captured in the spotlight for every misstep they make. This exacerbates the problem, of course, because it means that not only are they dealing with insecurity, confusion and resistance, but they are doing it all under public scrutiny. In cases like these, getting back on track requires intense heavy lifting.

So what can you do when you are off track? Find a way to anchor yourself and get back to the basics. My long-term coaching clients rely on me to help them with this very thing. Whenever they are confronted with a challenge and need to make a major strategic decision, or even when they just feel off their game, they come to me for grounding and realignment. Working with a coach that they trust implicitly, and who knows them so well, means that anchoring happens quickly and they are able to get back in the game with very little down-time.

Here are some key questions to ask yourself for anchoring and forward movement…

1. Who am I being in this situation?

2. Who would I like to be in this situation?

3. Am I behaving in a way that I would feel proud of?

4. What is preventing me from behaving that way? What beliefs do I have that stand in the way?

These key questions not only shed light on the cause of the problem or derailment, they allow you to quickly jump back on track and generate valuable results. Journaling through these questions enables you to stop, think through your challenge, and move forward with a great deal of speed and agility. Allowing a coach to read your journal and help you reflect on your responses provides added speed that has an invaluable impact.

Kim Ades, MBA, is president and founder of Frame of Mind Coaching and JournalEngine™ Software. She is one of North America’s foremost experts on performance through thought management. She works exclusively with highly driven, accomplished professionals in their field and uses the unique Frame of Mind Coaching process to ignite significant change and life transformation. Clients say that an hour with Kim has lifelong impact.