“Rebranding” – A trick to get you back on track

Is there something you desperately want to change or achieve in your life? Something you reason that you should feel motivated to do, but instead you just feel stuck or afraid? Whether you can think of one, two or twenty of these things in your own life, the battle within as you fight against yourself to pursue them can be exhausting.

Motivation… That magical bridge that’s supposed to consistently get us from thought to action. That enchanted unicorn that we are told will carry us from plan to perfection. That unquenchable flame that is meant to ignite us, body and soul, and propel us like a rocket-ship from intention to completion. But in reality, motivation is more like a rickety bridge over a crocodile infested river, a stubborn donkey or a flickering candle drowning in wax.

The fact is that motivation will only take you as far as your fears.

Whether you realise it or not, there is a certain amount fear associated with every goal you set for yourself and every change you want to make in your life. That’s why the struggle inside us can feel so overwhelming at times, it’s because we’ve reached a point where our motivation has crashed into a wall of fear.

The problem with fear is that it’s usually much stronger than our strongest motivation to get something done. So how can you uncover your fear and address it so that you can move forward? One technique that has helped me with this is what I call “rebranding”. It involves changing the way you think about something. More specifically; changing the image you have of it in your mind. You can use this technique with any situation where you feel stuck or fearful, because seeing something differently helps you approach it differently.

Let me explain with the story of how my blog came to be…

A long time ago in a reality that now seems far, far away (it was actually March 2019, but pre-2020 feels like a lifetime ago), I started throwing a few blog posts out into cyberspace on a free blogging platform. I knew that somewhere out there, there was at least one person who would feel less alone or benefit in some other way from me sharing my knowledge and personal experiences. I felt called to make a difference, no matter how small, but at the same time a part of me was hoping nobody would ever stumble upon what I had written (kind of like putting a message in a bottle and then labelling it “urine sample” before tossing it out to sea).

About a year later I moved my obscure little blog from its free home to my very own little space on the internet – portaltochange.com. Gradually I began to share my work on more and more social media platforms. I wanted to make a difference more than ever, but added to that was the fact that as a newly qualified life coach, nobody was going to find me if I didn’t let them know I was there. But that fearful part of me got louder and louder, constantly asking things like

I would procrastinate and get stuck when it came to writing for my blog – something I truly love doing – because fear kept telling me that there was too much risk involved. The lyrics from The Chainsmokers’ song “Sick Boy” would echo in my thoughts as I attempted to write despite the fear: “Feed yourself with my life’s work. How many likes is my life worth?”. I realised that I had gotten so fixated on the idea of “content creation” that I had lost sight of the reason I started my blog in the first place – to make a difference, no matter how small, in the life of even one person.

And that was when the idea of “rebranding” hit me, or at least gently nuzzled at my mind like an insistent carrot-seeking horse. In terms of “content creation”, all of the questions that were causing me to procrastinate and get stuck were valid and important. But changing the term for sharing my blog posts on social media to “social contribution” had me questioning why I had ever asked those questions at all? Whether or not someone doesn’t like something I write, whether or not I get mean comments, whether or not my writing is objectively atrocious… none of that matters if even one person feels less alone, more understood and accepted and more hopeful and equipped to live life to the full.

“Rebranding” the term “content creation” (which feels like something to be produced and then consumed and judged) to “social contribution” (which feels like a freely given gift to be taken up and appreciated for what it is if someone so chooses) has changed the song lyrics in my head to the Jimmy Eat World song “The Middle”: “Live right now, just be yourself. It doesn’t matter if it’s good enough for someone else.”.

Don’t get me wrong, positive feedback is incredible – it’s exciting and humbling to hear that something I have written has helped someone in some way. But even without that affirmation, changing the way I think about what I’m doing and connecting it with my true “why” has dissolved the wall of fear blocking my motivation.

If you’re struggling to build a habit, reach a goal or make some other change in your life, I challenge you to ask yourself these three questions:

“Rebranding” is simply choosing better wording for a goal, challenge or situation. This helps you see things from a completely new perspective that better serves you and empowers you to take action.

Wishing you a new perspective paired with exponential levels of enthusiasm when you give the “rebranding” trick a try!

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