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4 Ways You Sabotage Yourself
(and how to deal with them)
by Linda-Ann Stewart
Do you want to lose weight, change a habit, learn a skill, or build a business? When you have a goal, and you're not making any headway towards accomplishing it, you could be unconsciously sabotaging yourself. This is frustrating and discouraging, especially if you don't know what's preventing your progress.
If this is true for you, you're probably making decisions that worked for you in the past, but haven't been updated. Those old ideas aren't helping you to grow, expand or to achieve your vision. Instead of acting unconsciously, the solution is to be more deliberate about your choices.
Overcome Self-Sabotage
Here are some common ways you sabotage yourself and how to overcome them.
1. You crave freedom. You don't want to be limited by routine or structure and you seek to be spontaneous. Although spontaneity is important to enrich your personal life, it can undermine your professional goals. Impulsiveness causes you to follow whatever idea is uppermost in your mind at the time. This brings chaos and, unfortunately, spontaneity is the opposite of consistency, which is necessary for success.
Instead of winging it, create a structure and plan for yourself. Routine serves the purpose of freeing your mind to be more spontaneous in other areas of your life. Create a plan of what you're going to do the next day. Allow time and space for the unexpected to take place.
2. You react to situations. When you react to a situation, you act in the same way you've done in the past. This doesn't serve you when you want to change your future. You can't do the same thing over and over and expect a different result. The only way to receive a different outcome is to change the way you think about the situation and act towards it.
Instead of reacting, consciously choose how to respond. If the situation happens often, you'll want to plan your action ahead of time. Then, when it happens the next time, take a few deep breaths before you respond. When you think through an action, either before or at the time, you're coming from place of power.
3. You give up after a setback. If you fall off your diet, you might be discouraged and abandon your diet altogether. When you hit a block while learning to play the piano, you quit. Setbacks are going to happen. Two steps forward and one back allow you to solidify progress. Setbacks are also the way you discover what doesn't work and help you to figure out what will succeed.
Setbacks don't obstruct you unless you let them. Instead, they can be stepping stones. Since they are going to arise, plan for what you'll do when they do. What would be the common setbacks you will experience? Decide on specific actions to take, or statements you'll repeat to yourself to keep you on course.
4. You procrastinate. Procrastination is generally triggered by fear. You don't know how to do a task, you dread the tedium, you're concerned that it won't be good enough and so you resist beginning it. Because of that, you wait until the last minute to attend to the project. This is stressful, and because you delayed, you rarely can give it your best effort.
You may have to force yourself, but do one tiny chore concerning the project. Just start with a single action. Decide to spend five minutes on it each day. Taking small steps will build up momentum, and you'll whittle away at the task. Very quickly, it won't seem so difficult, and you'll find it easier to complete it.
By deliberately changing your responses, you take charge of your life. This empowers you with greater freedom, creativity, success and peace of mind.
Copyright © 2009-2023 Linda Ann Stewart
All Rights Reserved
As a focus coach, hypnotherapist, and speaker, Linda-Ann Stewart motivates women to focus and transform their business through deliberate actions that break through distraction and overwhelm to greater success, freedom, wellbeing and prosperity. Watch her FREE training video on Set Your Course to Success: 4 steps to strategically achieve your goals with confidence and ease. Register for the video and accompanying action planning guide at www.SetYourCourseGuide.com. You can contact her at LAS@Linda-AnnStewart.com or 928-600-0452.
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