Why You’re Not Doing The Things You Said You Wanted To, Part 2

In the last post we talked about how tricking your brain into thinking you’ve already started can give you a momentum boost when it comes to tackling tasks you’re feeling resistance towards.  Now we’re going to talk about another reason you’re not taking action – one you won’t want to admit to yourself that you’re doing.

The reason you’re “stuck” when it comes to getting off your ass and doing whatever it is you’re avoiding?

You’re pretending that there’s a barrier there instead of making a decision. Yeah.

In Which You Tend To Trail Off Rather Than Taking A Stand

So I was listening to one of my favorite social media rockstars, Laura Roeder this morning and her smack-upside-the-head video blog post “Your ONLY Two Choices” and it was right in line with what I’m about to talk about here. Laura talks about how people in business waffle between two options when they haven’t taken action:

1. “I don’t have the money to hire someone to do X,” and
2. “I don’t know how to do X.”

The problem here isn’t that 1 and 2 aren’t valid points – it’s that people let themselves get stuck there.  You do it.  I do it.

Let’s quit settling for this crap, ok?

If you’ve been avoiding taking action on something, maybe it’s because you’ve set up this same situation in your head.  You’re saying that this is a barrier and that is a barrier and you leave it at that … when what you really need to be doing is saying “screw it, I’m going to do something about it.”

Stop, right now, and think.

Think of something you’re avoiding because you either don’t know how to move forward, or you do know – but you’re just not sure you have the resources to do it.  Instead of stopping there, ask yourself this simple question:

What am I going to do to move forward on this right frickin’ now?

Seriously. You don’t have the money?  What are you going to change about how your money is spent to stop using that as an excuse?  Or how are you going to to earn more money so you can use it?

You don’t have the time?  What are you going to change about how you’re spending your time?  (Hint from @garyvee: “STOP WATCHING F******G LOST!”)  Or what are you going to decide to push off to later so you can get to more important stuff now?

The point of this post isn’t to motivate you (there are plenty of other posts for that).

The point of this post is to tell you to stop trailing off in those mental conversations and acting like your obstacles matter.  They don’t.

They don’t.

Are they real?  Hell yeah.  I won’t deny that.

Are they scary?  Hell yeah.  I quake in fear, daily.

Are they reason to sit on your thumbs instead of swallowing hard, bracing yourself, and actually making a decision to act, right now?

You know they’re not.

You know they’re not.

Here’s What You Need To Do, Right Now

• Promise yourself that the next time you think of one of these “fork in the road” moments, instead of saying “Yeah, I need to figure something out,” FRIGGING DO SOMETHING ALREADY.

• Promise yourself that the next time you say to yourself “I don’t have the resources to do X,” demand that you find a way to move forward.

• Promise yourself that the next time you say to yourself, “I don’t know how to do X,” call bullshit on yourself and take one single step towards learning how.

That is all.

Now I need to go take my own advice.

(&^%#$%# Rock Your Day posts …)