Do Not Drive With a Faulty Personal Gas Pedal

I receive AP breaking news straight to my phone, which is a convenient way for me to obtain breaking news while I work.  I’m sure you’re all familiar with the “sticky gas pedals” in Toyotas which resulted in over million cars being recalled.  I was making the bed when I received an alert saying,  “Transportation secretary is advising people stop driving their cars and seek repair.”  If I knew my gas pedal could get stuck, I would be afraid TO drive it, not act like nothing is wrong.

Certainly, some people have no other car to get to and from work, to take their kids to school, etc.  I get that.  But driving your car on a daily basis when a repair is needed is a huge risk.  It’s also similar to how people handle problems, or their personal gas pedal in their life.  Too many other things get in the way of tackling their problem, which leaves them with a pile of stuff on top of the problem instead of fixing it.

It got me to thinking about people, behavior and their thought process for living.

I may be talking to someone and when I begin to tell them what I do, they’re captivated and interested.   Sometimes they even say, “I could TOTALLY use your help.”  These are people who know their personal gas pedal sticks.  Sometimes, these people follow up, call me and we begin to work together.  They’re getting their gas pedal repaired.  Others never call.  They are the people who are driving around through their lives with a sticky personal gas pedal, know this but yet aren’t quite sure now is the time to fix it.  The longer you wait, the worse it’s going to get.  Now, your life is not like the real car, where you run the risk of killing someone because your car crashes into someone or something.  Essentially, you are waiting for issues to fix themselves on their own when you know they haven’t been magically fixed in the past.  You’ll find the same things happening to you, you’ll start to believe that’s just how things are and you’ll be further from positive change and happiness in your life.

Hear Your Fear

It is common to hear people talk about what they’d like to do.  Whether it’s about finding the right job after unemployment, being able to do 20 push-ups at once, move to a new city or ending an unhealthy relationship, all of these things require a commitment.  Within each new commitment we make, we naturally have fears associated with them such as:  “There is too much competition, I am too weak, I’ll be far from my family, I don’t want to be alone.”

These are all legitimate reasons in your mind but reasoning keep you from what you want in life?  Even if you have multiple reasons, it’s likely they all stem from a similar fear within yourself.  

Fears are nasty little hinderances.  They can come from so many different places, too.  Some people may believe they come from a past life, a childhood incident or a major trauma.  Last week I finished reading, The Instinct to Heal by Dr. David Servan-Shreiber and he discussed something quite interesting that many of us don’t think about.  In our daily lives, we hear about Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and many of us think this is only relevant to people who have endured a major catastrophe such as 9/11, a serious accident or witnessing some horrid event.  What he goes on to discuss, which I find to be far more interesting, is that all of us live through what he calls “small t” traumas.  These are traumas that aren’t life-threatening but do prohibit us from moving forward in life.  It’s that time you were made fun by your classmates when you got a word wrong reading aloud, a comment your parents made to you about your aptitude as an artist, a significant other who shunned your attempt at a sport, or harsh comments from a boss or co-worker, etc.  These “small t’s” hurt us.  We can read self-help books on how we should feel and deal with these issues but until we face the fears engrained in our brains from small t traumas, we will not be able to progress through our life.  These fears will hold us back.  

Hear your fears and understand the root cause of them.  I can help you do this through coaching and have been trained in very effective techniques which can help eliminate it for good!  

I'm offering a free 30-minute session for the remainder of January!  Sessions can be done by phone, video chat, or in person. Whatever is most convenient.