What Have You Been Up to These Past 100 Days?

Conducting a review and assessment of President Obama's - or any president's - first 100 days in office is a completely arbitrary practice. There are no laws mandating it, and there is no formal process for going about it. Everyone is welcomed to join in the practice, and many of us do. However, how many of us applied this random time marker to our own lives, and conducted a review and assessment of what we have been up to these past 100 days?

Why Bother to Find Out?
As recently as a few months ago, none of us could have predicted with great accuracy what our lives would be like during this 100 day time period. None of us would have been able to anticipate the variety of unforeseen changes and challenges the economic crisis had in store for us. None of us would have anticipated the whirlwind of uncertainty it created and how that became a metaphorical fork in the path of our lives. We had to make a quick choice about which of the two roads we would take.

Road Maps
One road begins with a corridor of anxiety that eventually leads to a fast track of self-doubt and paralyzing fear. This is the Road to Nowhere. You ventured down this road if your thoughts and perception about the future grew increasingly negative and became a constant mood. You looked for the negative aspects in everything, and if you failed to find any, you conjured some up. Continuing down the road, you lost your initiative, abandoned your dreams, and devised avoidance strategies to shield yourself from the changes occurring all around you. If you stopped moving, it is because you decided to burrow in until things "return to normal." You have reached the end of the road.

The alternative route is the Road to Somewhere. You took this road if you perceived the uncertainty brought on by the crisis as an invitation to take on a new challenge. You accepted the fact that what used to be is over and that no matter how things play out your life is never going to be exactly the same. To stay on this road you have to let go of the past, vigorously tap into your sense of resiliency, and enthusiastically engage your creative thinking. Your responses to external changes need to be proactive and strategic.

Did You Leave Enough Breadcrumbs?
The greater your feelings of uncertainty, the more likely you are to be on the Road to Nowhere. The longer you are on it, the harder it is to get off it. If you are there, think of how shielding yourself from change is actually undermining your personal growth. Understand that you are giving control of your life over to external circumstances. Consider the irony of blaming your current life situation on external circumstances but depending on them to make your life better again.

Conversely, the greater your sense of self-awareness, the more likely you chose the Road to Somewhere. However, it can be a slippery slope if your emotions and behaviors are irrational or irresponsible. Check whether your sources of motivation are unsustainable (for example, a constant desire for increased wealth). Do your decisions leave you vulnerable to frustration and discontent or adversely affect the people around you? If so, there is a high probability you will eventually fall into a ditch.

What About the Next 100 Days, and the Next...
Emotions run high during a crisis and the special strain of uncertainty spawned from this economic crisis is omnipresent. Given these circumstances, it is possible for even someone with the sturdiest sense of self-awareness to falter. As a Life Coach, I strongly urge you to get inside your own head and thoroughly and honestly assess your past 100 days. Where are you? How did you get there? Where do you want to be 100 days from now? Take advantage of the fact that, unlike the President, your assessment can be conducted privately and you have the luxury and keeping the results to yourself.
I do not know how many people will be making a fuss about the President's next 100 days, but do not let that stop you from examining your own life. Keep raising your self-awareness and see how far it takes you.