How to Turn Your Plateau Into a Positive Place
Here in the United States, Thanksgiving approaches.
It's a natural opportunity for celebration and acknowledgment, a plateau where we can pause and rest.
Life has a natural ebb and flow, and that includes time when the pressure is off and the crisis is (at least temporarily) averted.
This has been a recurring theme in my coaching calls lately.
Churches and church leaders are in between projects or nearing the end, slowing down or simplifying.
Yet some leaders are really not comfortable being at a plateau.
It's like they want to put the gas pedal down to the floor and just push through to Christmas and beyond, never mind the scenery.
They worry that they're not moving as fast as they should be-that they'll get stuck or stalled.
Dealing with the economic situation put some people into such a high state of energy, or even panic, that they're afraid to pause.
They don't want to wind up back where they started.
It reminds me a lot of climbing a mountain.
Reaching a plateau, sometimes people are afraid to rest or admire the scenery for too long, because they might lose their momentum and give up their quest to get to the top.
Instead of acknowledging and celebrating everything they've accomplished, they were focused on the feeling that they better get busy.
Here are five ways to turn your plateau into a positive place: 1.
Celebrate - What are five things you have accomplished over the last year? How can you celebrate those? 2.
Review - What's not complete yet? 3.
Learn - What have you learned during this leg of the journey that you want to carry with you into the next? What do you want to leave behind? Recognize that what got you here may not be what gets you to the next level.
4.
Reflect - How are you doing? Which parts of your personal foundation need strengthening before you continue? 5.
Gather - What skills, people, tools and resources do you want to gather in your backpack before starting up your new mountain? If you're in between projects at your church, why not camp out at the plateau for awhile before you jump back into action?
It's a natural opportunity for celebration and acknowledgment, a plateau where we can pause and rest.
Life has a natural ebb and flow, and that includes time when the pressure is off and the crisis is (at least temporarily) averted.
This has been a recurring theme in my coaching calls lately.
Churches and church leaders are in between projects or nearing the end, slowing down or simplifying.
Yet some leaders are really not comfortable being at a plateau.
It's like they want to put the gas pedal down to the floor and just push through to Christmas and beyond, never mind the scenery.
They worry that they're not moving as fast as they should be-that they'll get stuck or stalled.
Dealing with the economic situation put some people into such a high state of energy, or even panic, that they're afraid to pause.
They don't want to wind up back where they started.
It reminds me a lot of climbing a mountain.
Reaching a plateau, sometimes people are afraid to rest or admire the scenery for too long, because they might lose their momentum and give up their quest to get to the top.
Instead of acknowledging and celebrating everything they've accomplished, they were focused on the feeling that they better get busy.
"Life must be lived forward, but understood backwards.When you find yourself on level ground, on a break from climbing, climbing, climbing, you get to step back and take a wider view of what's around you.
" - Soren Kieregaard
Here are five ways to turn your plateau into a positive place: 1.
Celebrate - What are five things you have accomplished over the last year? How can you celebrate those? 2.
Review - What's not complete yet? 3.
Learn - What have you learned during this leg of the journey that you want to carry with you into the next? What do you want to leave behind? Recognize that what got you here may not be what gets you to the next level.
4.
Reflect - How are you doing? Which parts of your personal foundation need strengthening before you continue? 5.
Gather - What skills, people, tools and resources do you want to gather in your backpack before starting up your new mountain? If you're in between projects at your church, why not camp out at the plateau for awhile before you jump back into action?
