The Quicksand That’ll Kill Your Quantum Leap

I want to warn you upfront. There’s a very treacherous zone in your journey from you to “you squared.”

On the surface the path looks safe enough, and you might think choosing this particular route makes a lot of sense. That’s the problem.

Here’s how the trouble unfolds:

• You decide to shoot for a highly ambitious target, your quantum leap goal. It’s a stretch goal, but you’re all cranked up and ready to go for it.
• Considering the challenge, your natural impulse is to stick with what you know best in pursuing the goal. Maybe you tweak your established approach a bit, but c’mon, you’re mostly playing the same old game.
• You persuade yourself that this is a logical, practical, common-sense approach. (And how convenient—it also allows you to stay in your comfort zone.)

Better watch out, because you’re wading into quicksand!

Look, you’re shooting for uncommon success, and that requires uncommon behavior. Your current modus operandi won’t have the moves or the muscle needed for a quantum leap.

If you stick with your old habits, following basically the same patterns as before in your working and thinking, you’ll get stuck with the same old results.

Getting stuck will probably prompt you to ratchet up your efforts—to “try harder”—but that can simply complicate the situation. Struggling more vigorously at your old routines holds very little promise for a breakthrough to you².

Experts say if you ever get caught in actual quicksand, struggling to escape just makes it worse. Instead, you should relax. Then “try differently.” Lean backward onto the quicksand so the weight of your body is distributed horizontally over a wider area. Not what you’d expect, right? Next, try spreading your arms and legs far apart with slow, back-and-forth movements. That won’t cause you to sink. It will let water into the cavity around a trapped limb and loosen the quicksand’s hold so you can gradually bring yourself to the surface and paddle to safety.

Disregard the impulse to try harder. Try differently!

To make a quantum leap and achieve you², you’ll need to disrupt your routines, take new risks, and seek fresh solutions. You must be willing to leave your comfort zone. Otherwise, you’ll get stuck in the quicksand of your status quo methods.

And that is what’ll kill your quantum leap.