Moving Forward

The Current’s Natural Cycle

Movement, momentum, and progress – they’re attractive words. From personal goals to business plans, we want to see that forward movement. Over the last 13 years of coaching people from diverse backgrounds and industries, I’ve detected a natural cycle through which we move constantly.

Any time you’re poised for growth, there is at first an internal movement that occurs. You are moved emotionally, spiritually, or mentally. However you describe it, something tugs on you from the inside and produces the impetus for change. What’s happening is that you are committing to raising a standard of some kind. It’s a Defining Moment.

A process of Gaining Clarity follows, during which your direction and next steps become evident. Then comes Moving Forward, the stage of taking action, managing what comes up, and figuring out how to stay motivated.

Whether you’re in the process of forming your strategy or working it, the remaining two stages always apply. Enjoying Now means being grateful for what you have and choosing well when it comes to your time and energy. The final stage is Operating in a Powerfully Graceful Way. This is a combination of making things happen (driving it forward) as well as allowing them to happen (trusting what’s occurring) and deriving satisfaction from that mix.

There’s a Correlation

Each stage in this natural cycle influences the other. The more connected you are with your reasons for pursuing a particular direction, the more confidently you’ll move and with less worry about the challenges to be encountered.

Clarity, confidence, and movement are correlated. What’s helpful about understanding this correlation is that it lets you know what you need when you’re stuck. If you’re feeling unmotivated, for example, you might need to check your commitment level. Do your goals align with what matters most? Are the next few steps clear?

Where Are You Now?

Life is constant change, constant movement. At any given time, observe where you are in this natural cycle and support yourself with these questions:

• Defining Moment: What is it now time for? What is the standard I am raising?
• Gaining Clarity: What are the specifics? What is the path to pursue?
• Enjoying Now: What is good right now? How do I choose to spend my time?
• Moving Forward: How is the strategy working? What keeps me motivated?
• Operating in a Powerfully Graceful Way: What helps me balance the energy of making it happen and allowing it to happen?

This Week’s Call To Action:

• Get comfortable with the fact that you are always moving.
• Is there a particular stage that applies to you now? Use the questions above.
• Make the connection between clarity and confidence.

“It takes a lot of courage to release the familiar and seemingly secure,
to embrace the new. But there is no real security in what is no
longer meaningful. There is more security in the adventurous and exciting,
for in movement there is life, and in change there is power.”
-Alan Cohen