Are You Standing in Your Own Way?

Do you ever find yourself doing that bit of house work that you actually hate doing but its better than doing what it is you set out to do? It may not be housework but it may be baking or writing or playing with a new purchase or shopping? I am sure you have a perfectly reasonable explanation as to why you are doing this task and how important it is.  However, you know deep down that it’s because you are avoiding the actually task that will get your closer to your goal.

Some call it procrastination, others call it self-sabotage. We all do it. We find ourselves with a perfectly reasonable explanation for what we are doing but we know that its stopping or distracting us from what you know you need to do to achieve your goal.

In my case it was not being able to find my external mouse for my laptop in order to work on a document. Yes, I know that the laptop has a built in mouse but it wasn’t going to be easy to work on the document that mouse, so I just didn’t. We all have our own ‘mouse’ the things that we have that are stopping us from doing what we need to. What is yours?

Why do we self-sabotage? There are benefits. You gain something from avoiding what you need to be doing. These benefits enable you to stay in your comfort zone.  In your comfort zone you don’t need to address the fear of failure or feeling unworthy.

As self-sabotage occurs subconsciously, it is helpful to become aware of it. Being aware of what you are gaining by NOT completing the task. Ask yourself:

1. What are the hidden benefits of not achieving my goal?
2. What are the true costs of keeping these ‘benefits’ in your life?

Once you are aware of what the hidden benefits are and the impact they have, it will provide a new perspective. So next time you focus on watching that TV series, doing house work or trying out that recipe (or insert ‘important’ task here) be mindful of what the long term cost of it is. Ask yourself it is something you really want to be doing, given that it will not help you get to where you want to be.