The Resection

Show yourself a moment of self-respect and look at yourself 'in the mirror'. 

Are you where you want to be? 

I suspect not... and that's ok. If you're ambitious, you have goals and you desire change, then there's a good chance you never will be.

This is simply down to the fact that your goal posts will move. As you near your targets, dreams and visions, you and your growing experience will manufacture new ambition. This is a positive!

That said, if you feel that you're miles away from the identity that you desire for yourself, then it can be extremely overwhelming thing to consider. Likened to being lost amongst the clag. 

Visualise this...

You drive to one of your favourite National Parks. You park in a fairly familiar location and set off on foot with the aim of reaching a summit you've never hiked before. 

It's an enjoyable day, until visibility reduces from infinite down to less than 5 metres. You have steep ground in all four directions and your sense of risk escalates dramatically. You have a rough idea of where you are, but not to the level of accuracy required to navigate the dangerous terrain around you confidently. 

How would you feel? 

Lost? Overwhelmed? 

You'd no doubt feel panicked and begin basing your actions, thoughts and decisions on your emotions and feelings.

Blokes are living this reality every day of their lives. 

Can you relate?... your lack of direction and purpose is reinforcing deep rooted beliefs that are driving unwanted behaviours and keeping you stuck and lost in the clag. 

The best 'cure' for overwhelm, is clarity. 

Achieving it is a long and complex process, but it starts in the same way it would in our navigational analogy:

The best course of action is to attempt to descend carefully beneath the clouds so that you can recognise features around you that can also be identified on a map; lakes, wall junctions, spot heights, rock features, bends in streams etc.

You'd also perform a resection: the act of using compass bearings from multiple features in the distance to accurately triangulate your current position. 

Doing so would remove a lot of weight from your shoulders. Bring a sigh of relief. This process and strategy would also silence the voice in your head responsible for the irrational thoughts you will have experienced during that moment of panic. 

In a similar manner, you can also perform a resection to bring clarity, logical thinking and constructive action across your life too... and here's how.

Start by considering the following six pillars:

- Health & Performance

- Occupation

- Relationships

- Finances

- Personal Development

- Fun, Rest & Decompression

Identify how you would define each pillar. What is each one made up of? Spend 10 minutes on each pillar thinking about the last 3-6 months, your experiences, your behaviours, your actions and your outcomes. 

Where would you place that pillar on a scale of 1-10? 

1 being rock bottom, 10 being your wildest dreams and ambitions. 

Be honest. Hold your hand up and accept responsibility. It will likely be brutal. It will probably be painful... but suffering is the catalyst for change. 

It is likely that the reason you are where you are right now is because you have been conveniently avoiding this type of suffering.

Embrace it. Accept it. 

See value in it, because the process doesn't end here. As I said earlier, it is long and complex. This is just step one, and I intend to help.