Picture yourself at the starting line of a race. Ahead is nothing but space representing your journey towards some aspect of your better self. The “end” could represent a level of fitness you’re striving for, a role at your company you’re trying to reach, the type of relationship you’re seeking to find, and so on.

As you’re picturing the path ahead, throw on a backpack. This backpack will carry the weight of the outside influences and negativity you allow to come into your mind as you embark on your better tomorrow. Limitations on what is possible from voices surrounding you adds 20lbs. Societal norms you let create a lower ceiling for your potential adds 15lbs. Overuse of drugs, alcohol, unhealthy food adds 10lbs. Gripping to images social media sets as the norm as opposed to our authentic self adds 20lbs.

The weights continue to force us down the more we let the noise and negativity flow in our mind. This additional weight attempting to slow us down on our journey to our better tomorrow are called decelerators. While a main part of this website and blog’s core focus is helping propel those around us forward (Be an Accelerator – Be An Accelerator), the reality is the world will present many decelerators we all must face. It’s not a matter of if, but a matter of when something or someone comes along ready to add weight to the journey we’re on.

We can fight this idea of decelerators many different ways. It’s critical to embark on finding your own approach to shedding or refusing to put weight on your shoulders. Below are a few ideas on how to either get started or continue your journey fighting the decelerators:

• Surround yourself as much as possible with those that want to help uplift you
• Take time to ask why – question why limitations are trying to be forced on you to then work towards realizing you don’t have to accept it
• Seek out books, podcasts, documentaries, etc. of those that have excelled at what you’re trying to accomplish to pick up clues for your own authentic success
• Create a vision board – have clear representation of who you’re trying to become and what you want your journey to be
• Accountability mindset of owning what you can control

How else do you work to fight your decelerators? Drop ideas below for the Accelerator community to learn from.

Take your step: this week, work to start building on your toolkit for fighting decelerators. Try one example above to test on actively fighting the decelerators that will pop up this week. Reflect on whether the approach you tried is one that is authentic in the way you want to fight decelerators and start assessing other approaches you want to leverage.