Successful behavior is what creates confidence.
Confidence is something you own, once you’ve earned it. Short-term pleasure and long-term joy are two fundamentally different outcomes.
Once you’ve begun succeeding at any endeavor, you’ll reach a threshold where you must decide if you’re ready to go to the next level.
Most people get comfortable at a certain stage because they don’t want to deal with the emotional purging involved in leveling up.
When you decide to level up and go bigger, your life becomes very difficult for a short period of time.
All of a sudden, the confidence you used to have feels completely gone.
Despite having a firm foundation, you feel like you’re standing on nothing, and that everything around you is falling apart.
Here’s how you’ll know if you’ve recently leveled-up:
- Your Confidence Temporarily Drops
If you’ve been successful in the past, and for some reason feel derailed, don’t take that as a sign you’re on the wrong path.
Chances are, you’ve leveled up without realizing it.
When you’ve mastered one set of principles, your life will improve. You’ll become more competent, successful, and confident. Your interactions with other people will be far deeper and more meaningful.
However, once you’ve mastered a certain level of principles, you’ll become aware of and exposed to higher-order principles. Immediately, you’ll feel like a child again.
You don’t know how these rules work.
You’ll begin making mistakes.
Your confidence will drop.
You’ll wonder if you’ll ever be able to feel that same powerful feeling again. Don’t worry, you will.
- Everything Will Feel Like It’s Falling Apart
Just before author Napoleon Hill’s greatest success in life, he went through several months of depression.
Despite knowing deep within himself what he was capable of, he became paralyzed and incapable. He was at rock bottom. His life, finances, and relationships began falling apart.
Once the pain became severe enough, something happened. A switch flipped.
With this immediate clarity, he was able to get direct insights about how to achieve his goals. But this acceleration and advancement came after several months of failure, defeat, confusion, and depression. He had leveled up.
There’s a fear of success lurking within you. You’re not sure if you really want to keep ascending. But you already know within yourself that you will. You’re resolved. It’s done. You know it’s happening. You’re being pulled.
- You’ll Begin To Question Yourself and Your Goals
In the midst of your confusion and lack of performance — as your world is seemingly falling apart — you’ll begin to question yourself and the path you’re on.
First, your life isn’t really falling apart. It’s better now than it’s ever been before. You’re living at a much higher and more powerful level than ever before. You’re just adjusting to what that means. You’ll rise up.
But in the meantime, you’ll question. Clarity will lack. You’ll be surrounded by fog. You’ll feel disoriented.
It’s during these moments that you’ll need to stick to your core practices for clarity.
- You’ll Feel Alone
Despite developing deeper and better relationships — you’ll feel alone. The alone time you need is necessary. At the same time, though, you need to maintain connection.
Isolation won’t help you get where you need to go. The more successful you become, the more connected you’ll need to be.
So, take the time you need to get clarity. But be even more vulnerable and honest now with your “inner circle.” You need them now more than ever. This doesn’t mean you won’t feel alone. You absolutely will feel alone. But just like the lack of confidence, this feeling will shortly go away.
You’ll soon see the people in your life with more love and gratitude than ever before. Your joy for the little things will surmount any achievement or goal you desire.
- You’ll Feel Numb To What Used To Inspire You
For a time, you’ll feel totally disconnected with your passion, craft, and mission. What used to keep you awake at night with excitement now finds you sleeping-in in attempts to avoid.
The external pressure feels too much. It’s harder to focus. It’s harder to get into the zone. Harder to feel inspired. Harder to care.
This numbness isn’t because you don’t care, though. You’ve advanced in understanding. You’ve adapted. Your brain is being forced to deal with more at once. This is how you advance.
- You’ll Start Going Through The Motions But It Won’t Be As Enjoyable
For a while, it will feel like you’re going through the motions. You’ll have so much momentum that muscle memory will take over. But your heart won’t be in it for a short-time.
You’ll still succeed. But it won’t matter to you, because you didn’t push yourself. Succeeding will become boring, because you’re not in alignment with your why.
- You’ll Start Making Uncharacteristic Mistakes
With your temporarily lack of confidence and stability, you’ll begin dropping balls that were easy to hold before.
To other people, the consequences seem impossibly big. But your mind has already been stretched. You have a much, much bigger vision. Although once big, these balls are now small in your mind. Your security is internal, so you know you’ll be able to solve whatever problems may arise. To quote Josh Waitzin in The Art of Learning, “Sometimes limits need to be pushed.”
- You’ll Recognise Distractions
“A ‘once-in-a-lifetime opportunity’ is irrelevant if it is the wrong opportunity.” — Jim Collins
One of the problems with your situation is that more and more opportunities seem to be presenting themselves.
You leveled-up for a reason. You learned how to do things other people haven’t discovered.
You will really need to sharpen if you’re going to make it to the top of this level and up to the next.
The only opportunities that matter are the one’s that deeply resonate.
- You‘ll Be Faced With A Crucial Decision
It’s at this point that you’re faced with the crucial decision — will you connect deeper with the WHY that brought you here or will you let go? Everything you’ve done has brought you to this point. Now is your time to rise-up.
In order to reconnect with your WHY, you’ll need to un-commit to several “opportunities” that were nothing more than appealing distractions. You’ll need to have some hard conversations with the people who matter most. You’ll need to get back to the drawing board.
It’s at this point that you can take all you’ve learned in the past and go bigger than you’ve ever gone before.
10.What Got You Here Won’t Get You There
Newness brings flow. It allows for more angles on the same beautiful experiences, relationships, and meanings you’ve had in the past.
- It Won’t Be Easy, But You Can’t Go Back
“A mind that is stretched by a new experience can never go back to its old dimensions.” — Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.
You’ll need to get back to the beginners mind. Now is the time to be more consistent than ever before.
- You’ll Quickly Adapt To Your New Lessons — Growth Will Come Shockingly Fast
Prepare for faster growth than you’ve ever experienced before. Your momentum is now multiplied and compounded.
You’re no longer alone on your quest. You have lots of teammates to support you. Not only that, but something inside of you expanded beyond the dimensions of what you could create.
Now, you’re creating, building, connecting, and living.
- Enjoy It
Let it happen.
You’re on to something great right now.
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Great article! Some very wise words here and you've given me new perspective on what I considered "repeating old patterns". Perhaps it's more about incremental growth & adaptation. Thanks for sharing :-) I've given this a rested.
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