Escaping Never-Ever Land
“I am never going to dig out of this mess.” “How will I ever be able to overcome the financial shortfalls and management impacts upon my project and team?” “I just don’t know how much longer I can make it because it seems this is never, ever going to change!”
To be sure, the complexity of workplace challenges – heck, let’s just call it life challenges – can be extremely daunting; feel as though they are here for the long-term; and seem quite overwhelming day-to-day. So how do we effectively deal with all of these dynamics while still trying to maintain a respectable level of performance, productivity, and proper disposition?
Most important, I will admit that I do not profess to have all of the answers. However, I will share the key principle-based approach I have used in numerous Never-Ever Land experiences, both in my professional and personal life.
I have discovered that if I will address my mindset as the most immediate line of defense, the other escape strategies will have a better opportunity for success. And, never-ever doubt the power of stinking thinking, which is the place where “Never Lies” wait to entangle the mind, thus entrapping the whole being in Never-Ever Land! When I begin rehearsing the “Never Lies”, I am doomed to Never-Ever Land’s sloppy mental pit where potentially poisonous gases dwell. If I allow myself to remain in this pit for too long, I will definitely need to break out the mud boots, or I will not be able to live and move and have a very good being in that mucky place.
The "Never Lies" consist of all of the dismal potentials for deterioration, demise, doom, disaster, and ultimately, destruction. All of these “D’s” are what the stinking thinking mindset so liberally spews out, thus it is what stinking thinking produces. Within each “Never Lie” there is more muck, more gaseous waste, and more potential to sink into the depths of despair. The ultimate prevention for even beginning to entertain the voice of “Never Lies” is to mentally and verbally rehearse a few common sense truths:
- In all probability the sky will not fall this morning;
- In all probability the sun will not explode at noon; and
- In all probability the moon will not burnout forever tonight.
It just probably won’t happen because in all of the laws of probability – well, it just probably won’t! And wrapped up in these common sense truths about the sky, the sun, and the moon are all of the people and situational dynamics of my dilemmas.
On the contrary, in all probability the outcomes of my dilemmas will be just as I determine them to be if I will focus on working toward solutions, being open-minded to the input of others, and accepting some inevitable impacts that I cannot control. Even more, these solution-based approaches can be based on what I do know and on what I can do. Furthermore, I can support this can-do mindset by not focusing on all I can see, but rather by focusing on all that I know.
For instance, I know much good can be accomplished with principle-based actions, goals, and the team spirit of others – in other words, a plan. I know there is rest in a plan because there is guidance, there is framework, and there is a determined path forward – even beyond the bends in the road that I cannot see right now. I also know that there is goodness, kindness, and faithfulness in the heart of others, if I will guide my thoughts, words, and deeds in such a way that I seek to draw out these productive qualities in others. To be sure, these qualities are not in everyone, but I know they are in enough people around me to make a difference - if I choose to seek and find them. And, I know that I have many gifts and talents to contribute to the whole, if I will keep my mind out of the muck.
These are a few of my most basic tried and true escape strategies from the nauseous gaseous pit of Never-Ever Land. So just for today, I think I will banish the “Never Lies” to the pit from which they came – and I will not even look at my mud boots with intentions to go there. Instead, I will release the Always-and-Forever truth about the ultimate goodness, kindness, and faithfulness of others – and of my God – because that is a hope-filled, life-giving place to dwell. Could it possibly be that I have the ability to create a little piece of heaven on earth – in my impact upon my world?
Copyright 2015 Devaney Rae
People need help discarding self-limiting thoughts.