Life is all about the Comeback

By Lori Hanson

Just like the NBA Finals, the US Open, the French and the upcoming Tour de France and Wimbledon, life is a series of comebacks. How persistent are you? How much do you want what you want? Enough to continue pushing and believing until you’ve achieved it? If you’ve followed me for long you know I love sports. And you know that part of my intrigue with sports is watching the human mind operate. The ultimate test in the skills of the mind. Who really believes, who lost their belief momentarily, but was able to collect themselves and pull off the win. It’s written all over a tennis player, golfer and yes, even team sports (because everyone has to be on board).

Have you ever thought you had rid yourself of a certain situation and then it pops up again? If you’ve every worked for someone else, (and most of us have) you may have experienced this. Early in my career I would continue to run into the same type of personality that caused issues for me at every company I worked at. I thought that by changing jobs I could make the situation go away. I’d start the new job and this time the control freak or insecure person was in the form of a different gender than the last company. Ever happen to you?

I was recently reminded of this the other day hearing my young nephew talk about leaving another job because of “politics.” Ah, how I remember. But what’s the ultimate goal? Job hopping to look for a perfect situation that doesn’t exist? Or, doing some self-examination of what you’re doing to contribute to the recurring situation? (Which I finally woke up and did). I’ve often said life would be so much easier if we didn’t have to communicate.

To succeed, reach your goals, find happiness and enjoy some peace and tranquility in your life, chances are you will have to employ some comeback techniques.

Tonight the Oklahoma City Thunder are down 1-3 in the Finals and facing elimination from the ultimate challenge and measure of success in their chosen profession. They have a choice: Regroup, play their hearts out and engineer a comeback, or “do their best” at the next game and at least look like they tried hard when they lose. If they were to listen to the analysts and all the talk and statistics, they would doubt they even have a chance to come back. But there are still three games to be played, there is still time if the belief and effort is there. The question is: How bad do they want it? More than the Miami Heat? Enough to push themselves to come back from three straight losses? A physical and mental challenge.

In life our struggles often come from mental anguish and challenges (unless you have health issues). But you still need to prepare and engage both your physical and mental strength to meet the challenge and achieve your goal. If you’re groggy mentally because you eat fast food, too much pasta, fat and consume sugary sodas, coffee and alcohol on a daily basis your stamina isn’t nearly what it could be.

To have the mental clarity you need to engineer the comeback that will get you the job you’ve always wanted, the salary you desire, the relationship you dream about and the body or physical health you crave you’ll have to make a commitment, to your health and lifestyle. So you too, can leverage both physical and mental sharpness and keep yourself focused until the game (or goal) is achieved.

Here’s three tips you can use to engineer your comeback and achieve your goals:

1. Develop Mental Awareness

Part of developing mental awareness and sharpness is having the ability to look at yourself, from the inside out and accept your part in scenarios that aren’t working be it a family, romantic or work relationship. Once you’ve identified what your “stuff” is. Create a plan to address it. Do you need to have a one-on-one conversation with a person or persons to alleviate the drama that is happening now? That could be your first step…

2. Prepare and Train for Competition

Increase your physical stamina so you will be ready for the fifth set of tennis, or the seventh game of the series and complete your comeback. Get fresh air when you exercise, include a mix of cardio, resistance training and fun in your preparation. Test yourself and your endurance, push yourself on occasion and see what you can accomplish. Above all, be consistent, the key to prep for the comeback.

3. Believe

Belief in yourself and your abilities is the magic ingredient to help you successfully engineer the comeback and achieve your short-term or long-term goals. Improving your belief is a combination of letting go of old beliefs and emotions that are holding you back. Set your intention to achieve your comeback and reach your goal. Using visuals and repeating affirmations on a daily basis helps keep your eye on the prize. Be specific, check your progress and adjust as needed. Keep your goal top of mind.

Afterall, ANYTHING is possible. You’ve heard of the big sports upset? Well go out and kick some ass and create your comeback and score the big life upset…exceed other people’s expectations of you.

In my next blog, we’ll go into more specifics in each of the three areas.

Contact us now for help in creating your comeback

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