Take A Step Back

However much you try, you struggle to land the deal with a client you have worked with for more than a year. Nothing seems to work. What should you do?

You have been working tirelessly for three, four months to get your business in order. But, it seems that no matter what you do, it is not enough. There always seems to be more work than you can handle. What should you do?

My feedback would always be – Take a step back.

Some problems and challenges are like quicksand. The more you hustle, the more the issues entangle you. You get stuck into one-dimensional thinking and lose perspective. Sometimes it could be due to the sunk-cost fallacy. “I have spent far too much time pushing this line, and I can’t trace back now”- you fail to realize you are heading in the wrong direction looking for answers.

In all these situations where despite your best efforts, you feel stuck, it is a good idea to take a step back and assess if you are heading in the right direction or you need to change course.

When you step back, you break the pattern. You are no longer constrained by the reactive need to keep doing something. Instead, you give your mind some breathing space to consider alternatives. As a result, you will invariably gain new insights and perspectives that will help you deal with the issues.

Think of sprinters. What do they do just before they start running? First, they take a couple of steps back to get some thrust to push their bodies forward.

Imagine yourself to be like the sprinter trying to move forward.

When you encounter challenges and problems that feel insurmountable, don’t let them stifle you. Take a step back. You will gain momentum to move forward, just like the athletes.

This approach has always worked for me.

Taking a step back is a good first step forward.