Friends,

[Read on or listen to the AUDIO of today’s Transformation Tuesday newsletter, here.]

I read something the other day about how a Nike engineer helped a designer colleague get unstuck. The designer had been tasked with building the self-tying shoe, something Nike eventually did.

But at that moment, stuck he was. Spinning. No progress. Confounded. Burnt out.

The engineer told the designer to stop working on the self-tying shoe for a moment and make a running shoe for the engineer instead. The shoe had to hold up for at least 5 miles, and the designer could use any equipment on the Nike campus to make it.

But the engineer told the designer to flip one variable: The shoe had to be made 100% out of materials sourced from Home Depot.

A few days later, the designer showed back up, presenting the engineer with a shoe that wore well during a 5-mile test run. The designer reported feeling a new wave of energy and inspiration, too.

The engineer’s topline takeaway was that when you get stuck on a thought problem or you’re facing creative burnout, flipping one major variable can shift the whole atmosphere and refresh your energy for the project. It can make you creative again.

And I’ll add one more takeaway today: The single most powerful variable you can instantly flip in these situations is the way you wield your words. What are you speaking over your projects and desires? Are you constantly affirming the struggle, the grind and hard-ness? Are you endlessly planning for what happens if things don’t work out or talking about your fears with your complaint buddies (you know who they are)?

Your words are powerful indicators of your inner reality. They reveal the thoughts you have practiced so much that they are now deeply held beliefs, maybe so deep you’re not even aware that you hold them. If what you deeply desire is an inspired, easeful, conscious way of creating your work and your life, but you’re constantly speaking in the direction of difficulty, grasping or grievance, you may be talking yourself into a standstill. That internal struggle of having a split mind is exhausting and self-fulfillingI it does make everything you ever want to do or be much harder than it has to be. And that, in turn, creates stuckness and burnout.

Your own words—and the beliefs they represent—can present progress-stopping inner roadblocks. Fortunately, you don’t have to figure out how to make a shoe out of home improvement supplies to get around these roadblocks, starting now.

The first step to unlearning an unwanted belief is to see it, or at least to be aware of the inner discord of your mixed mind. Step two is to stop rehearsing and rehashing it with your words. Stop saying you’re stuck. Stop saying you’re behind. Stop saying “impossible.” Impossible is a lie.

Give your unwanted beliefs the chance to peter out as you focus deliberately on fresh, powerful ways of being, doing, thinking and especially speaking.

Then you can use the power of your words to build expansive new thought habits, and to speak possibility, life and energy into your projects.

Say things like: “Everything is always working out for me.”

Or: “I look with wonder at that which is before me.”

Or say: “I don’t know the how, but I am clear on the vision. And that’s enough. I’m receptive. I’m open. I’m learning. I’m listening. I’m growing. I’m good.”

If those are too extreme to be true for you (for now), just say: “This is going to be a fascinating process. I don’t know exactly how it’s going to work out, but I do know that everything is possible. I’m just going to stay flexible, have fun with this and see what happens.”

Yeah, that’s a good one. Say that.

Head up + heart out,

TNN

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