Whats Your Hang-Up? Three (3) Steps to Conquering Self-Sabotage

There are many things that we should do, must achieve, ought to complete… The truth is that if desire is a missing element in that journey, you may encounter difficulty making progress. Forcing yourself to do something you don’t want to do is about as effective as making teenagers do something they don’t want to do. This is still not a reason to just pack up and walk away, because even the things you don’t wan to do can have immeasurable value toward other things that you want. What you need to figure out is if you will get something that could make you want to go even things you did not want at first.

You’ve taken the first step of setting the goal but can’t seem to move past to move forward. If every time you set out to take the next step you find a thousand ways to be distracted and procrastinate, then something is wrong. When you find yourself in a cycle of no results take out a piece of paper to answer the following questions. While you can easily complete this exercise on a compute or tablet, it is best to use pen and paper because there is no delete there. You can keep a running tab or your thoughts no matter how many times you change direction.

1.      What my hang-up?

Something is obviously holding you back and it often is beyond the scope of just doing the work. This could be the result of many things ranging from fear of failing, fear of judgment from others, or just a lack of gain- The carrot is not big enough. Not moving forward is safety net. You may make excuses such as not knowing what you’re doing or what to do. What it really boils down to is this: As long as you don’t go ahead all those things that you may fear or worry about will not happen. The draw back is that all those things that you hope and wish for also will not happen. Take the time to figure out what it is that you are attempting to avoid by not following through to the finish line.

2.      What’s my prize?

The best case scenario is what you ultimately would like to result from your investment. While your hang-up is focused on all the possible negative outcomes, the prize is about the positives that you seek. Your pie in the sky. What makes the journey worth starting? Answer this honestly. What will happen if you follow through with this journey? What will you be getting out of it? If it’s something you are doing to get money, how much will you get and what will that meant to you? Not all prizes are monetary so dig deep to uncover what you stand to gain and what that really means to you. Once you know what the prize is, you also have to decide if it’s something you can handle. You need to be able to picture yourself 30 pounds lighter or moving upward in your career so that you can determine if this would really make a difference in your life.

3.      Is the potential gain worth the potential risk?

Once you’ve answer the first two questions, then you get to pick one. There is no right or wrong selection. If you decide that the risks are too great to be worthy of the prize that’s just fine. This decision will free you from wasting time avoiding something you don’t really want: A prize that does not hold enough value for you. If you decide that the reward is worth the risk then that is just as great. Once you know what you stand to gain and that the potential of getting the reward outweighs the risks, you are no longer being held back by the risks. At that point it is no longer about the task as the focus shifts to the prize. Instead of avoidant procrastination you can spend your time in pursuit of your goal.

Use visualizations to get you in the winning moment. As much as you can, be concrete– Use vision boards and affirmations to remind you of what you are working toward. These tools will be useful, especially when your hang-up tries to rear its ugly head again. You can do anything as long as you want it enough.

I’m just saying though…

Dream Big… Live Bigger…

DrJudiC

www.DrJudiC.com