Everyone at some point in their personal, spiritual or business growth journey will plateau. In some instances, the plateau can be recognized and received as an absolute necessity and an essential part of your continuing journey, as it is the point where you get to reintegrate what you’ve learned, recharge your batteries and re-evaluate where you’re at.
In some instances, the plateau can be experienced as being stuck, spinning your wheels, going nowhere fast, despite all of your efforts to move forward, trying to get the results you want. This type of plateau experience can feel pretty yucky and demeaning.
The truth is whichever way you look at the plateau, you can deal with it in exactly the same way and turn it into a self-serving opportunity that leaps you forward in more than one aspect of your life.
The way I’ve learned to deal with the Plateau is to R.E.T.R.E.A.T., and I learned it as recently as last year when I found myself in a desperate place trying to take my business forward but instead spent a lot of time doing stuff that didn’t work out. Yep, I was in that spot that kept me from spreading my wings as far as they could go and instead left them feeling clipped and useless. I was going nowhere fast.
In this article, I want to share with you an idea that you could put into practice right now, if you find yourself standing on the plateau.
This idea is to R.E.T.R.E.A.T.
Reality: Check in with what’s showing up in your Reality. Is it what you want? If it isn’t, take the next step.
Expression: Is this Reality an Expression of who you really are? If it isn’t, take a look at what’s missing? When you’ve identified this, take the next step.
Truth: What is the Real Truth of what is going on? Go deep under the surface and pinpoint what is really missing for you. For example, you may have identified that you no longer enjoy your job and it’s making you unhappy. When you look at the real truth of what’s going on under the surface you realise that you want to take on more meaningful work. From there you can uncover the Truths aren’t Serving You. Such truths could be that you don’t believe you have any other skills or talents or you know what you want to do but you don’t believe it will bring in the income you desire. From here, you can go to the next step.
Remember: What is really being called of you. As a participant in this thing we call life, are you supposed to stagnate, to stay where you are, as you are? Or is life about evolving?
Execute: If it isn’t to stay where you are or as you are, get rid of that which isn’t Serving You. This can be easier in some circumstances than others, just remember this is your life and it isn’t a dress rehearsal, you only get one shot and once it’s gone, it’s gone!
Ask: For what you want from Yourself, your Higher Self/Soul, The Universe/God. Believe and know that you can have the life of your dreams, all you have to do is find the right people to help support you and guide you. And finally, once you’ve gone through this process, take the last step…
Take time out: Retreat
The most important and valuable piece is to Take Time Out: Retreat. In situations like these, most people feel the need to keep on doing. This also used to be a big part of who I was. As a Doer and a Go Getter, I found it difficult to not do something. It made me feel lazy and unproductive, but most of all, I believed that if I wasn’t doing then I simply couldn’t expect to get the results I wanted! Does that resonate with you?
So last year, when I hit the plateau, I unconsciously went into R.E.T.R.E.A.T. From there, I took time out of my business to get to grips with where I was at and where I wanted to go.
I deepened my retreat, took three-and-a-half months off work and immersed myself in ‘Being’. I woke up every day at 5am, did up to two hours of Spiritual Study and Meditation. I journaled, walked in nature, did kundalini yoga and best of all, I allowed myself to breathe by taking the pressure completely off me to make my business work.
Within a very short space in time, everything I needed and wanted to manifest was coming to me thick and fast. The beauty being that most of the time, I wasn’t consciously ‘asking’ and exactly what I needed was being delivered to my doorstep.
I wasn’t ‘DOING’ anything in the traditional way and I was getting results! In particular, unexpected cheques in the post and a house sale (which took two years to happen AND we sold it for much more than past offers we were accepting)…. the cash I needed to support my ‘Being’ was promptly being delivered to me. How about that?!
By the time I came back to work, the shift in me was so huge my business began to soar and I started to make a profit, one which I could visibly see in the business bank account.
And it wasn’t just my business that took a leap, it was my personal life too. We moved to a much bigger house in a beautiful, quiet area, and I fell pregnant for the second time without ‘trying’ (it took 20 months to conceive our first child).
For the first time in my life, I really got to experience what it was like to truly ‘Be’ and see my life sky-rocket at the same time.
My Mindset had shifted in many positive ways. My Soul had been fed the Spiritual food it desperately needed and I had allowed my Magic and Sparkle to unfold in the most natural way. It felt and still does feel fantastic.
What I came to realize is that we, as a society spend so much time ‘doing’ that we’ve forgotten how much we desperately need to take a step back from the hustle and bustle of normal life to take a look at what we really want out of our lives. Hitting the plateau is one of the ways that we are guided to take that time out. How about you, has your life plateaud in some way that is calling for you to R.E.T.R.E.A.T.?
