The Consequences of Your Choices: Why Investing in Yourself Changes Everything
- 16 hours ago
- 6 min read
A reflection on freedom, fear, subconscious programming, and the real cost of not investing in yourself.
You are free to choose whether investing in yourself through personal development coaching will transform your life. You are free to decide whether working with a Manchester life coach is worth the time, energy, and financial commitment. But you are not free from the consequences of that decision. Every choice you make, and especially the choice to change and grow or stay in the comfort zone, shapes your future results.
This article, inspired by coaching considers the consequences of our choices, and how subconscious programming can sabotage freedom to make great plans and goals for ourselves.
The Downside of Freedom of Choice
What would you change if you were truly free choose whatever you wanted?
This is the simple question it presents as. First of all, free from what? Free from financial limitations? Free from any third party involvement? Free from judgement? Free from suffering? Or how about freedom from yourself, and your own pre-conceived limitations?
Freedom can be scary, which is why many people exercise the freedom not to do something, to stay safe, and think they made a conscious decision.
And it isn’t just in the world of personal development that freedom can have a negative impact.
What about the recent political debates ongoing about freedom of speech? You can say what you want about that as long as it isn’t foul or abusive, culturally insensitive, racist, homophobic, in support of a terrorist organisation, misogynistic, misandristic or otherwise demeaning or offensive to one group or another. Not really freedom of speech then?
You are free to roam wherever you choose, except on private land, military, or scientific installations, government property, across borders, or in the event of another lockdown.
Even freedom comes with its own set of rules. Some of them self inflicted, but we will get to that. Peoples unwritten rules fascinate me, and I get excited when they show up in a coaching session. When we discover those rules that don’t align with a clients goals, it usually means we are about to have a breakthrough! Read more about our Personal Breakthrough Experience
Freedom to Make a Mistake
One of the biggest fears that stifles real freedom is fear of getting it wrong. If making a mistake as a child led to punishment, embarrassment or even shame, making a mistake as an adult can be devastating to ones confidence. However, the key to significant growth is the ability to learn from our mistakes. Life coaching can deliver a powerful change of mind.
The greatest opportunities in life often come from our biggest mistakes. I completely believe that error can become great fortune because there are so many examples.
Consider this one: the humble Post-It Note was born out of catastrophic failure. A man named Spencer Silver was working in the 3M Research Laboratories in 1970 trying to develop a strong adhesive. Silver succeeded in developing a new adhesive, but it was way weaker than anything 3M already manufactured. It stuck to objects, but could easily be lifted off. It was super weak instead of super strong.
But of course the story didn’t end there. No one knew what to do with the stuff, but Silver didn't discard it. Around four years later, another 3M scientist named Arthur Fry was singing in his church choir. He used his own markers to keep his place in the hymnal, but they kept falling out of the book.
Fry remembered Silver's adhesive, and used some to coat his markers. Success! With the weak adhesive, the book markers stayed in place and lifted off without damaging, or even marking the pages.
3M began distributing Post-it Notes nationwide way back in 1980, some ten years after Spencer Silver made a few mistakes with his experiment. Talk about getting incredible results! Those apparently poor choices gave birth one of the most popular office products ever created. And many people still call them "Post-Its", even if they arent made by 3M.
Freedom to Grow: Why Investing in Yourself Can Feel Risky At First
It all depends on what you focus on, your filters and what you are sorting for. The great philosopher Goethe gave us one of my favourite quotes:
“Mistakes are portals of opportunity”
There is another choice to make. Feel the fear, and do it anyway as Susan Jeffers said.
If you want to grow, but are procrastinating become curious about what is holding you back. Is it uncertainty, is it fear? What if I fail?
But what if you succeed?
What most people don’t consider is that whilst you have the freedom to decide whether life coaching in Manchester is for you, you are not free from the consequences of your decisions. You are also free to choose not to invest in yourself. No one will think any less of you, although you may not see the results you want.
When would now be the best time for you to start investing in yourself? There is limited availability, but you still have the freedom to select a day and coaching session time that works for you. One of the most common reflections I hear when I am coaching is that they wish they had started sooner. It always reminds me of a great story about a old man who asked his grandchild about the best time to plant an apple tree. The best time would have been ten or twenty years ago, then the tree would be bearing fruit. The next best time? Right now, if you want to pick the fruits in the near future.
Consequences of Being Free to Choose: The Real Cost of Not Investing in Yourself
To discover some of your own subconscious rules these three simple questions can help.
What will happen if you do?
What will happen if you don’t?
What won’t happen if you take action today?
What came up in your thoughts when you consider these?
Now, if you are ready to delve a little deeper consider this important question:
What has stopped you moving forwards before today?
You may find yourself articulating a list of limitations that starts with “Im too ...” or “Im not ... enough” or “I don’t have ...”
You may even experience a fear of change which is likely counterintuitive. You have a freedom to play full out but are wary of fully committing. As a Manchester life coach working with professionals, business owners and individuals seeking change, I see this pattern repeatedly. People generally don't make significant changes when they have a choice. People make the most significant changes when they have no choice. They make the change a must.
At the unconscious level these objections typically involve a form of self preservation based on outdated programming. The good news is you can overcome such limitations. You can tackle obstacles, and you can find breakthroughs that transform your current reality. /you simply reprogram your unconscious mind to make taking action a must.
The Power of Reviewing Your Choices
The simplest way to start working on yourself is to review. You can do this mentally but there is a deeper connection if you write with pen and paper. Maybe a journal, although it doesn’t have to be anything fancy. A simple A5 notebook will work. If you enjoy journaling, we have some free personal planning pages for you to download.
"The only person you are destined to become is the person you decide to be.” - Ralph Waldo Emerson
Let’s review where you are right now with a new set of journaling questions:
What are your intentions today, this week, this month, this year?
What steps have you already taken to achieve your top goals?
How have you grown?
What do you need to keep on doing /do differently to achieve your goal even sooner? What other avenues do you now need to explore now?
What could it cost you if you don’t?
The Choice Is Still Yours
Every breakthrough begins with a decision.
Common objections in professional growth often include doubts about the effectiveness of self-improvement methods, concerns about time commitment, or simply the financial investment required.
You are free to continue exactly as you are with those familiar patterns, familiar results, familiar limitations. There is comfort in that. Better the devil you know, right?
Or you are free to lean into growth. To challenge outdated subconscious programming. To invest in personal development coaching. To take a leap of faith in yourself. To fully commit to changing your current reality.
But remember this:
You are not free from the consequences of staying the same.
If something inside you knows you are capable of more, perhaps the real question isn’t
“Can I afford to invest in myself?”
It might be…
“What will it cost me if I don’t?”
If you’re ready to explore what that next level looks like, working with a Manchester life coach could be the conversation that changes everything.
To your success, or otherwise
Tony Healer
Personal Breakthrough Specialist
Comments