Now or Next? I know what you’re thinking. You are saying to yourself, it’s it Now or Never? 😉
Sure, that’s how the saying goes. Recently I’ve found great results in occasionally reminding myself that for me it’s Now or Next.
First, I don’t want you to think that when I say Now or Next I’m implying Now or Never is wrong. That is not the case at all. That saying has been around for many years. It’s a manta that holds so much power when its use is necessary. Its helped many people through some very tough times. Truthfully, even I’ve used it a few times in the past.
Now or Never is that mantra that comes to mind when someone feels:
– My back is against the wall;
– I’m at the end of my rope;
– This is the end of the road;
– It’s me against the World;
– This is my last shot; or
– I’m at my wit’s end.
I wouldn’t dare suggest this manta is not effective. I’m simply sharing a mindset switch that has brought me tremendous success in health, weight loss, and business over the past 12 months.
As I mentioned before, I’ve been in situations where I needed to whisper to myself that the time is Now or Never. That alone triggered a response and understanding within myself that it was time to turn on the tunnel vision, forget everything else that needed to be completed, ignore everything going on around me, and focus all my efforts and energy on the task at hand. I did just that! Many times it worked. I knocked out whatever it was that I was working on with an even better result than expected or anticipated.
There were also times where I did not get the desired result. I went all in. I turned on the tunnel vision, forgot everything else that needed to be completed, ignored everything going on around me, and I focused all my efforts and energy on the task at hand. Still the result was failure. Failure was fine. Failure was not my concern. My concern was that I noticed in those situations where all my efforts did not work, I was not able to restart or even continue the project.
I had all that time, money, and effort put into something and I couldn’t even figure a way to use what I had gained from the failure to launch that particular idea or project again. However, this didn’t hold me back from starting new things. In the meantime, I was able to start other tasks and complete them. After a while another situation would pop up that was a Now or Never scenario, I would go through the process again and many of those scenarios ended in success while some still ended in failure. Those failures still sat on the self.
I grew frustrated that I was not able to restart those tasks. I was like, I have about 5 things I have now put time, money, and effort into and they are sitting on the self and I can’t even start. I grew to a level of frustration where even thinking about thinking of a way to restart was irritating. I must have said something to myself like “On To the Next”, or “What’s Next”, or simply “Next”. I’m really not sure what it was, I just know NEXT was in the saying. That Next stuck.
I went back through all the things that were sitting on the self. I relived them at the beginning of their Now or Never phase. I walked myself through each time I turned on the tunnel vision, forgot everything else that needed to be completed , ignored everything going on around me, and I focused all my efforts and energy on the task at hand. I relived the failure at the end and I really think I may have been about to say Now or Never and some how Now or Next came out.
I won’t tell you that the sun instantly starting shining bright, or that beautiful flowers started blowing in the wind, or even that colorful birds were chirping like in the movies or story books. What I can tell you is that almost instantly, I felt a mind shift. Almost like to say to myself, oh wait! You mean to tell me it was not Now or Never, it was really Now or Next? You mean, this project is not junked? You mean I can start it again? The questions were being asked in my head but I answered out loud with a big HellZ Yea!
To speed up this story and not hold you much longer… …Let me just say, everything that had been on the self was completed by the end of 2018. I thought there were about 5 things on the self but there were actually 8 and all were completed. One of the biggest things on the self was my weight loss goals. I had been battling to lose weight since 2013 (tried everything out there) but ended 2018 with the weight loss of 63 pounds (working on another 40 lbs. now).
Through out 2018 and at least 3 times so far in 2019 I ran into situations that were considered Now or Never in the past. I employed the Now or Next strategy instead. Multiple times, the result did not end with meeting the intended outcome. Each time scenario that ended in failure I was able to start back up; a couple times took more than one restart. Nevertheless, by the end of 2018 they were completed. So far in 2019, I am 2 for 3 in completing the Now or Next tasks that I have faced. You can bet that last one will be accomplished pretty soon!
What works for you? Is it Now or Never – or – Now or Next?
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I typically try to keep these fairly short as I know few people have the time or patience to read long text these days. This one ran a little longer since the backstory was necessary. I hope you were able to get something out of this. Feel free to share your thoughts. I would love to hear how the Now or Next mindset works if you give it a shot.
HT3Stacks…
Hawkeye Publications 