Bust Through Roadblocks

Do you feel immobilized by the emotional walls you’ve built up around you? Do you sometimes feel very safe behind your personal fortress, yet at other times feel quite sorry that you are blocking out people and hopes and new ideas from entering your life? Are these thick brick walls preventing you from accomplishing your goals, and perhaps even finding love…? Well, take a deep breath and exhale. What we’re about to reveal to you may surprise you – these walls exist only in your mind!

Yes, they feel real and restraining, they are obstructions to be reckoned with and yet, let’s take all of this a step further: If the walls are merely a part of your imagination, then it means you have complete control over them. Therefore, you can use them as a motivating force, rather than as an excuse to avoid living a more complete and bountiful life.

Identify your walls
According to The Circle, by Laura Day, when you first encounter your personal roadblocks, your general reaction may be that everything in your world has stopped or at best has way too many limits. Surprisingly, this is a sign of progress in your journey towards creating your new unblocked reality. The sooner you address these internal and external forces that are holding you back, the sooner you will begin to release the walls that bind you to the past.

In fact, you’ll find yourself embracing these very roadblocks because as soon as you identify them, you will have also pinpointed your weaknesses and will, therefore, be able to address them. It’s an odd gift, if you think about it – the very thing which is causing you such consternation is actually like a neon arrow, pointing to your problem and setting you on your voyage towards conquering it.

Face your fears
Taking down the walls around your life simply requires you to power right through them, as if they weren’t there. At first you may feel hesitant or a bit emotionally bruised as you try to operate as if they weren’t there, but just like anything else, with courage you’ll learn to fly right over them, or even better, break right through them.

For instance…
Okay, let’s say you’re planning to start looking around for a new job, but you feel overwhelmed by the preparation needed to break into a tough job market (you have resumes, cover letters and portfolios to put together) and research (putting calls out to everyone you know who might be able to help). Do you stop dead in your tracks? You may – after all, it could seem like a daunting proposition to look for a job, when everyone else seems to be looking, too.

Plus your shyness and lack of confidence may be keeping you from asking for letters of recommendation, calling old friends to network about the job market. Your feelings may even stop you from pressing the send button on your email or picking up the phone. But you just can’t succumb to this roadblock. Freezing when faced with what seems like insurmountable difficulties is as good as making a decision to let those obstacles win. You’ve given up, thrown your hands in the air, waved the white flag, thrown in the towel… and for what? A little bit of fear?

Success moves walls
Instead, try looking at this as the identifying problem – that is, you do need a job. Now, think about it this way: Writing a good resume, networking with people in your business, researching the job market, asking for personal recommendations and going on interviews go a long way to help you not only find a job, but also work to tear down the walls of insecurity you may have built to protect you from the failure or disappointment. In other words, you’ll conquer your roadblock by moving through your wall of fear and taking another step forward in your career.

What’s more, you’ll become increasingly fearless in the process. And, the next time you feel you’ve outgrown your work, or would like to try something new, you will have freed yourself to make changes more constructively, based on your past success. Your new reality – life with at least one less emotional roadblock – will come from a place of empowerment, which is a wonderful feeling.

So face any obstacles that you see blocking you from doing the things you need to do to lead a successful life, as an invitation from the universe to create change within yourself. Roadblocks are much like life lessons… expect them along life’s highways!