LA 043: How to Get Unstuck

All through life, Alex has always felt that other people, schoolmates, friends and later colleagues, seemed to have it easier. Dad was never quite satisfied. It was hard to live up to his standards. Aunts and Uncles always knew a cousin who was better, brighter, richer, faster. Alex, like you and me, would like to earn more, be recognized and respected. To enjoy life and have fun. To simply succeed.  Is it really so difficult? Alex wants to provide for others. Family is very important and the good of society is too, but Alex feels stuck on a hamster wheel, running from paycheck to paycheck with some left over, but it's never enough. And let's face it; the job sucks most of the time. Alex's boss rarely has a good word. Sometimes, when Alex has achieved something out of the ordinary, the boss notices, but most of the time Alex feels like the effort is unnoticed. Alex was in a rut. Where's my MOJO? For the past couple of months, Alex's has been feeling drained, both emotionally and physically. Without that 'get up and go', Alex accepted to sit down and stay. A friend mentioned a wonderful seminar that they had attended. A famous motivational guru was in town and the flyers promised life transformation and heart alignment and immediate recharge and success. So Alex forked out the high price of a ticket and went with great expectations. Oh what a terrific day it was. An atmosphere charged with promise and laughter. Alex returned home with a renewed desire to re-ignite passions and eager to progress with living life to the max.   In the day's ahead motivation surges Alex continues to feel upbeat for several days after the seminar. There's even a framed photo of Alex and the speaker with a motivational quote and signed sitting on the desk. Work seems effortless and progress feels assured until the boss sends the last customer presentation deck back with a note describing it as "unusable". Not quite the type of attention Alex had desired from the boss.   Within moment, all the encouragement and promises of the motivational seminar evaporated like a morning mist The boss referred Alex to HR to get trained in putting presentations together properly. And soon Alex was enjoying a couple of days away from the office in a fun and lively workshop.  In spite of a couple of long interruptions of teleconference calls that "just had to be done", the workshop was very good. Alex learned and had a chance to practise the skills and get feedback from the facilitator. Back in the office, Alex stared disbelievingly at the increased mountain of urgent tasks and slowly worked through them, never quite coming to the end but at least trying to use the newly developed skills. All was well until a curt email described Alex's latest presentation deck for the boss as "utterly unsuitable" and questioning the point of training someone if they weren't going to use the training properly. Alex knew that it would be a waste of time explaining that there had been no opportunity to use the skills What Alex needed now was some clear guidance on what to do next. Alex was stuck again. That encouraging feeling of regaining motivation and purpose from the seminar was gone. Alex had developed skills but with no proper feedback at work and regular guidance even the new skills weren't being used effectively. What to do now? And how do I get unstuck? Alex wanted help, but talking to a family member or the boss felt too difficult and risky. Friends, well they just seem to be caught up in their own successful, busy lives. So Alex looked online and decided to risk everything and speak to a stranger. A coach who seemed to have helped a few people in similar situations get unstuck. Some Alex contacted just tried to sell a solution; a few took the time to listen and genuinely appeared to care. However, what Alex needed was a plan to get from here to… well, somewhere a whole lot better, and someone who would be a guide on the side. After checking out a couple of potentials, Alex cho