Free Yourself from Self-Sabotage
If you are finding yourself stuck in life, begin by realizing you aren’t alone. There are steps you can take today to turn your life around.
Ask yourself if you truly have an open mindset. If you suspect that you might be an all or nothing person consider how you could be inadvertently sabotaging your best interests. If you are all in or all out, you can suddenly find yourself with nothing. This is because when we don’t achieve the ultimate outcome, we lose motivation and can give up completely. Consider how quickly you abandon a diet when you fail to lose more than five pounds in a month or so. You started out by diligently counting calories, weighing food, and exercising regularly. But when you failed to see results you checked out, and decided on take out pizza for dinner and binge your favorite Hulu series. By having the firm mindset, we fail to sustain our goals when success is slow going. This then leads to stopping to try at all, and give up completely.
Instead try to embrace a practice of self-discipline. This will help you make smart decisions, but gives you a sense of grace when you slip up. It teaches all things in moderation and to pace yourself as you begin to improve your life. This includes the occasional “cheat night,” to go on vacation, and spend when you must spend. These moments then take on the appearance of being a “treat” rather than you failing at sustaining a healthy plan. If you don’t know where to start with improving your life, half the battle is taking the first step. If you haven’t been to the gym in a while don’t plan on working out for an hour. Simply leave your home, get in the car and drive to the gym. Then take the first step into the facility. Once you are there you will find that you can do a rep or two on your favorite machine. Remember Rome wasn’t built in a day and the same is true for the next chapter in your life.
Your indecision may be rooted in deep seated fears. People often fail to take initial steps because they are worried that they won’t be successful. Calm the gremlins of “what ifs” in your brain. Stop the analysis paralysis of contemplating every potential outcome of a given situation. Life is unpredictable in nature. Although we seek to control events, deep down we know this is impossible. Thus, worrying and obsession over outcomes places us into pits of despair.
Boldly embrace the concept of risk. At some point you will have to cross the street of indecision. Instead of thinking of what can go wrong, think about what opportunities may arise from taking this action. Sure, you might not stay at this new job forever. But you may meet new friends, learn new skills, or achieve a new plateau in your career setting you up for future additional success. High-risks can yield impressive rewards. Understand that taking risk can involve a bit of temporary pain. You may take a nasty stumble that could require time to heal. But in the end, you will become stronger and gain both grace and resiliency.