Ever felt anxious, depressed, alone, jealous or just feel like you aren’t good enough, attractive enough, smart enough?
If you answered yes to any of these, then it’s likely you’ve got some shit going on. Don’t worry, you’re not alone – everyone has their shit. If it’s starting to control you and stopping you from living your best life, then it’s time to take back control.
I’ve helped people from all walks of life to make lasting changes, from CEOs, athletes, to drug dealers and MMA trainers, teachers and influencers. Whether you’re a Buddhist monk, mum or a yoga guru, we’re all striving to reach a state where everything is as we want it to be, where our minds aren’t running rampant in our heads and our inner critic is silenced.
However, because we get caught up in our heads, we mistakenly think we’re the only ones who don’t have our shit together. Sure, there may be people who appear to be more messed up than we are, but there are others who are apparently living an enviable life. Then there’s little old you and me, with all this shit running around in our heads, and all we want to do is to sort it out so we can be ‘normal’ and get on with living the best life we can.
Let’s burst that balloon! There’s no such thing as normal and everybody has their shit! If someone tries to convince you that they have all their shit together or if you think they’ve got it together, because their life seems so perfect from the outside, one of two things is happening.
Firstly, at that exact time the Gods are smiling on them and life is good and their shit has faded into the background for a while. Or they’re bullshitting you. They’re putting up their “it’s all great” facade and you’re buying into it. Know someone like that? Most of us do.
As my friend Olympic Swimmer Grant Hackett notes in my book, “The best way to achieve success in life is to first have a good look at yourself, understand what your strengths and weaknesses are and then, here is the silver bullet – get the tools to deal with your shit!”.
Let’s look at the 4 key ways to sort it out:
1 – Know your shit. Most of us know we have shit but don’t actually know where it comes from, what it is, why it’s there or what to do about it. You need to dig into your mind, get your hands dirty and identify where your shit really comes from. What we think is causing our discomfort and unhappiness may actually only be a symptom of what’s really happening for us.
2 – Own your shit. Name it and own it so you can tame it. Accepting and taking responsibility for our shit can be a double-edged sword. For some of us, we’re the masters of deflection and will blame everyone else for our unhappiness rather than own our shit and deal with it. To really sort it out we need to own our shit.
3 – Deal with your shit. Knowing our shit and our relationship with it is not much use in the long term if we don’t do something about it and deal with it. I’ve developed a nine- step program to help you become Shit-Fit so you can move forward.
4 – Maintaining your shit fit. Once we have dealt with our current shit, we haven’t finished. Just like going to gym and getting fit, we need to keep working on it to stay in shape. As we know, shit happens and it is a part of life, so it will continue to happen. Given that we’ll all have our ups and downs as we go through life, you need to focus on the things to do to maintain a healthy balance while life happens.
Gary Waldon is the author of Sort Your Sh!t Out ($29.95). He is a business transformation consultant who works with people at all levels from CEOs, business leaders and professional athletes through to teachers and retirees to help them take back control of the things that matter to them. Find out more at www.sortyourshitoutbook.com
