630-484-2336 ben@bedo.org

Do overs

You remember when you were a kid and you were playing a game and something didn’t go right.  And sunndenly someone cries out, “Do Over!” which means we get to stop, back up and start again from the beginning.  What just happened didn’t count.

Wouldn’t that be great if we could do that in our adult life?

Well, why not?  Of course I’m not saying that you can do whatever you want with no concequence.  If something goes wrong you just shake it up like a giant etch-a-sketch and “do over.”

But then again, perhaps you can… at least on your goals.

 

Think about it.  How many times have you set about to accomplish something only to have your momentum blocked—something distracted or got in the way, emergencies occurred… life happened.

How frustrating is that?  How discouraged you must feel.  How hard it must be to pick yourself up and start all over… again.

But what if you could simply stop everything and shout “Do Over!” and stop wherever you are in that moment, back up and start again from the beginning.

You can, you know.  It’s just that easy.

 

Case in point: I’ve sat down about 20 times to write this out.  Each time, I just get started with the first sentence when suddenly an email pops up, then my wife comes in to ask me something, then a client calls, then “oh crap, I totally forgot I had to do this”, then “now where was I? Oh yes, “You remember when you were a kid…”, then the phone rings an email pops up my wife comes in I just remembered something oh crap I have to go.  And then the next day I sit down, say, “Do Over!” and start again from the beginning.

Eventually I got this far.

 

And it works with just about anything.  Time and again my clients set goals only to have life jump up and consume their time and energy and they return on the next call feeling frustrated, stuck and like a failure.

“All right,” I tell them.  Then let’s start over.  Reset the objective, redesign the assignment, get a better support and structure, refine the plan and “Do Over!”.

And they do.

 

It’s just that easy.