Set the Frame to Win the Game
An article about setting frames for success
This article is about the importance of creating a frame for success. A frame is a mental construct with which you define yourself, your goals and your current point in life. This frame helps to make sense of the world and provides you with an overall path forward. It will help you to find meaning through the obstacles that are thrown at you constantly, giving you purpose and direction on how to overcome them.
These obstacles come in many forms and will do whatever they can to break down your frame. The first thing that happens is that you make excuses for yourself and blame others for the problems that you are facing. If you are trying to maintain a frame of success but are failing, then you might say that this failure was not because of something wrong with your frame but because of outside circumstances or other people. You might say that you are not failing because you are in the wrong direction, but you are failing because other people have wronged you and life has not been fair to you.
This is just an excuse to make yourself feel better about your situation and it will not be useful in helping you to overcome your obstacles. You have the power to make a frame for success, but if the frame does not work then it is easy for people to use excuses as a way of avoiding responsibility. If you use excuses to keep a frame of success and they do not work then they will not work again because it is a lie.
The second thing that happens when people have a frame of failure and their goals are not being met is they feel down. They might be stuck in the same place with no end in sight or they will start blaming external factors for all their problems. This is the worst possible scenario because you are beginning to believe that being unsuccessful was your fault all along.
If you blame yourself for being unsuccessful, then you will never be able to change anything in your life. You might avoid trying to get ahead because you think that it won't help anyway. This lack of action will begin a cycle of negativity and self-doubt which will cause you to completely lose faith in yourself and your goals.
The only way to break this cycle is by creating a new frame for success. This means that you need to determine the exact reasons why you have not been succeeding and make sure that you are using them as the motivation for change.
First, you need to determine whether your current frame is a failure. Are you feeling stuck in an area of life where your goals are not being achieved? Is there a limit to what you can achieve or do your goals always end up being too big? Do your actions only delay the inevitable and waste precious time? These are all signs that it is time for a new frame.
If your new frame is not working then you must come up with a new one. This process can be difficult, especially if you haven't been successful in the past. You will have to figure out why your old frame did not work and this requires time and effort.
Just identifying the problem is not enough though; you must determine what exactly went wrong in the first place. What were some of the causes of your failure? Maybe you are doing too much at once or maybe you need to think about things differently. Maybe you need to start off small and build up slowly or maybe you need to change your priorities. These are all questions that you must ask yourself when determining why a frame has failed.
Once you have identified some of the causes for your failure then it is time to create a new frame for success. This means that you need to come up with new goals that are based on what went wrong in the past and what will prevent it from happening in the future. You need to focus on the goals that you want to achieve, not the ones that are currently being prevented.
Once you have come up with a new frame for success then it is important that you get started on achieving your goals. You are creating a frame for success but you will also be creating a job description. This means that there will be certain things that need to happen in order for your ultimate success, or failure, comes about. You need to make sure that you are following a plan or strategy for your success and don't just say that you will do whatever you want because this won't work.
You must create a plan to follow so that you can be successful in the long-term. You will be setting yourself up for failure if you are not using this new frame and it is important that your tracking system is foolproof.
When you are creating a new frame for success you need to be specific about what you want to achieve. You will have a map of where you want to be and what it will take for you get there in the future. You must be very clear about where your destination is and how you intend to get there.
Once this map is created then it is time to start taking action towards your goals.
Conclusion
The frame that you have set up for yourself is what you will use to guide the path that you are taking. You have the power to change this if it is not working, but it will be difficult. You must identify why your current frame is not working and make sure that your new frame will work in the future. This can be difficult but once you have found a way of achieving success then it will be easy for you to build good habits into your life and achieve the goals that you want in life.