iPEC Coaching Blog | on December 3 2014 by ipeccoaching

5 Ways To Go From "Pain" To "Gain"

By: Luke Iorio, President, iPEC Coaching

I find it interesting how frequently living creatures tolerate discomfort and pain. I include myself in this group. Many years ago, I suffered a fairly severe injury to my rotator cuff. It still bothers me to this day. Some days I forget about it, some days it’s fairly painful, but the injury lingers. I’ve consulted doctors whose prognoses for surgical improvement span from mildly better range of movement and decrease of pain to good improvement in both areas. I’ve decided to deal with the occasional discomfort of the injury rather than have surgery. Hey, my baseball days are long behind me anyway. I know I’m not alone in this decision. How many times have you had a toothache or tennis elbow and not gone to the doctor until it got to a point where you couldn’t tolerate it any longer? Right. We’ve all been there. Many of us have also been in that situation with our behaviors, too. Perhaps you’ve had a job that was unfulfilling, or had a bad habit you wanted to ditch, or were in a relationship that wasn’t healthy. Often, we remain in these places way longer than we should. We tolerate the pain and trudge along miserably or wait until it becomes unbearable to finally make a change. It doesn’t need to be that way. Get Your Head Out of the Sand One of the first steps to making a change is to stop ignoring the problem. Pretending things will just get better is a sure way to ensure that they won’t. In fact, not only is time being wasted in a painful place, things will probably get worse. Start Small We need to stare our problems in the eye if we’re going to combat them. Major changes don’t occur in one monumental stroke. It takes time. You’re not going to go from a sedentary, out-of-shape routine to running a marathon just because you’ve finally decided to change. But maybe, instead of grabbing fast food for dinner, you make a healthy meal instead. That’s a small step down the path. Get Some Help I guarantee you others have been exactly where you are and made a change. Seek them out. If you’re looking to make a career change, seek out others who have done it. If they aren’t in your immediate social circle, then look for them online. There is a wealth of free resources available that are only a click away. Believe Some of the greatest life changes have been accomplished by average folks who simply committed to making a change and believed, in their core, that they would. You don’t realize how strong you are and how much you can achieve when you refuse to let doubt derail you. Get that negative self-talk out of your head and out of your life. All it does is hold you back. Get Up You’re going to face some obstacles that may trip you up. That’s OK. Get up. Dust yourself off. And, get back on track. You can do this! I’d love to hear about how you decided to make a change and how you did it. Post your success story, so others can learn from YOUR experience. Live on Fire! Luke Iorio, CPC, PCC, ELI-MP President & CEO Institute for Professional Excellence in Coaching (iPEC)

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