subject: How to Get Out of an Impasse – What to do When There is Nowhere to Go [print this page] How to Get Out of an Impasse What to do When There is Nowhere to Go
You wake up one good morning and realize that it seems as if you're facing a blank wall. There are no issues, nowhere to go. Not a good feeling at all. Panic might not be far off. So what do you do?
The very first thing that you need to do is to get a yellow writing pad and a pen; it's "war room" time. Time to plan the strategies to get out of that situation; time to find out exactly what you're made off.
The second thing that you do is to put down on paper exactly what the problem is. That's very important and should be done with due care. A general cannot fight a war unless he knows exactly what his situation is and you cannot solve a problem unless you have an exact definition of what your major problem is.
Once that this is done, you write down what you can do right now to start solving the problem. It might be some people or organizations that you can call for advice. It might be some wild scheme that has little chance of succeeding but will at least give you something constructive to do.
The thing is, you need to find something that will get you going and moving. Just like a rock climber that faces an impasses, when there is no way that you can climb higher, you need to move laterally until you find that little crack in the wall that will give you something to stand on while you look for something better.
The solution that you are looking for it out there and you need to find it. Hand wringing and fear or despair will not do it but enough action and movement will. You need to reach out and keep reaching out until you find what you are looking for.
While you are in the "war room" looking for a possible solution you have to keep in mind that we overcome big problems one step at the time. Looking for a one-step solution is futile. A ladder is climbed one wrung at the time and big problems are solved by acceding to progressively higher plateaus, also one at the time.
So, what you are initially looking for is how to reach that next plateau. Once you've reached it, you can start looking for the next one but until you've done that, you have to focus on that first step and nothing else.
Any challenge can be overcome if it is broken down in chewable bite size. Whenever we get stuck, it simply means that we are taking on too large a task. Everest is climbed one step at the time and so is any powerful challenge.
One of the last thing that should be remembered when we are in a precarious situation is that we have to focus on where we want to go and not on the possible consequences of our present situation. We need to focus on what we want and not on what we fear.
Nature has a way of giving us what we focus on. The reason for that is simple; we see more of what we focus on therefore chances are that it's where we will gravitate. That's why mountain climbers always look up and not down, they have been warned of the consequences of staring into the abyss so they don't do it.
So long as there is life, there is hope. So long as we look for solutions, we find them. So long as we take action we keep on moving and so long as we keep on moving, sooner or later we get to where we want to go. There is a solution for your problem. Keep on moving and you'll find it.
