“Action is the foundational key to all success.” – Pablo Picasso
I was watching a seminar last week and the presenter Adam Grant was describing how he and his friends were feeling last year. He said, that they struggled to get excited and though they had energy they weren’t burnt out or suffering from depression. It was a feeling of no joy and aimlessness. Adam called it languishing. His definition of languishing is, “a sense of stagnation and emptiness. It feels as if you’re muddling through your days, looking at your life through a foggy windshield.” Adam had described how I had been feeling the last twelve months.
I had so much administration and course development work to do over the past few months, but couldn’t get motivated to do any of it until deadlines drew near. I have over fifty leadership and team building books to read and could barely make the effort of turning a page. My concentration span was less than five minutes and something that would take me thirty minutes was taking me hours to complete. I struggled to interact with potential clients because I just didn’t feel like to talking with anyone. This is just not who I am and I am so grateful there is a term for it, languishing, and that now that I know what the issue is I can fix it. Many of my coaching clients had described similar feelings and my belief is that it is due to the Covid-19 hangover that just does not want to go away.
Coming into 2022 I am reasonably optimistic but having been battered around in 2020 and 2021 I have been somewhat cautious in my approach to bringing on new business especially in relation to speaking and training gigs. It is very disappointing to have gigs postponed or cancelled. A few times last year I had to reschedule a number of events several times which is exhausting and soul destroying, not just for me, but for my clients as well.
So now that we know we are languishing what can we do about it? Firstly, I have updated my strategic plan and started initiating some of the smaller goals that are easier to achieve in a short timeframe. Then I have set Key Performance Indicators, KPI’s, for myself in relation to calling at least ten clients per day and I have gone back to instituting my previous and successful routine that I had pre-Covid. I get up at 6am each morning to go for a walk and I have set myself the goal of reading one leadership book per week. I set aside uninterrupted time each day to work on some of my major projects. I am slowly detoxing myself off Netflix who has been a constant and comforting companion but a bit of a bad influence on my usually disciplined routine, these past months.
With this renewed focus I have already seen the positive affects so don’t languish take action, and fight your way back to success, one small step at a time.
