What's Stopping You?
It’s useful to periodically stop and evaluate where you want to go and what’s stopping you from getting there.
You know the actions and habits that can transform your life. Are you doing them? If not, what’s stopping you?
Step One – recognize what may prevent you from taking action:
- Fear – you’ve probably heard the expression that “FEAR is False Expectations Appearing Real.” Fear prevents action because it takes you out of the present into the past or future which does not exist (except in your mind.)
- Analysis paralysis –perfectionism is often at the root of this debilitating affliction. Perfect doesn’t exist and wastes your time trying to achieve it. Transformative leaders fight perfectionism as an enemy versus something to embrace and nurture.
- Mixed up priorities – Stephen Covey talked about things that are urgent but often unimportant. They are distractions to achieving what really matters. If you are not clear about your priorities then life can stand in the way of actions that are important but not urgent.
Step Two – stop thinking and start doing – take action:
- Be Present – fear happens in the future. If you worry about what you should have done last week or what you might be able to do tomorrow, you’ll miss out on the present. The present is the only time you can take action (until time machines exist outside a movie.) So stop trying to live where action cannot happen.
- Be Accountable – commit to yourself and/or others that you will take a specific action.
- Be Serene – remember the serenity prayer? If you try to change things that you do not have control over you will be stopped. So accept what you cannot change and focus on the rest by taking action in a direction that gets you where you want to go. Have the courage to change.
Every day there is an action that you can take that will move you one step closer to your goals. Whether it’s better eating habits, a new way to work or taking action to achieve a Great Goal, the first step is what it takes to move from thinking to doing. What’s stopping you?
