Question: Sometimes I’m not sure how to overcome difficult obstacles before me.
My tooth implant was not an easy one, but the doctor got the job done. The worst part for me was when he said, “Now don’t exercise for a week and no swimming under water for two weeks.” That was far worse than the extraction. My first thought was whether I should have had the surgery if I couldn’t exercise. Crazy, I know.The doctor thought the toughest part of dealing with me was a tooth that did not want to be pulled, but the truth is I don’t think he was prepared for me questioning him about why I couldn’t exercise. I asked him all kinds of questions and he finally said that I could do stretching, abdominals, core training and yoga, so at least he was partially coming back into my good graces.Something that was intriguing to me was when I went to the pool to do my workout and had to choose new strokes and drills to keep from being under water. I was so excited that first day back in the water because I followed his directions and found awesome new ways to work new muscles. (I know I did because I ached a little the next day.)What about you? When you hear information that you don’t like, do you ask questions to make sure that you (1) Truly understand what’s been said (2) Know what you definitely can and can’t do. (3) Try your hardest to accomplish your goal by approaching it in a different way?My point is to make sure you don’t give up. Many of my executive coaching clients know that if they don’t accomplish the goal we’ve outlined, we use new approaches until we finally get there. Whenever they are frustrated about not accomplishing something I do just what I mentioned above. I make sure I understand what they’ve said, ask about all the facts so I fully understand them and then try different approaches until we are successful.Implant that mindset and complete this assignment. It’s really not that painful:What is something you are working on right now (or have abandoned) that if you try a different approach you might accomplish?
