It might be doing our taxes, finishing a course, or just making that vital follow-up call that could expand our business, we know it’s coming, we know it needs to be done or will help us, but often we just put it off, and off, and off.
I can’t count the amount of people I’ve met who have an idea for a business, a product, or a project. They’re really excited about it, and while they are always talking and thinking about it, imagining how great it will be to be finished, they avoid the steps to completion. I’m sure you know people who do this. Most of us do this at times, I did for years.
So, what is happening? How is it easier to avoid it now when doing so makes it a bigger issue later?
It’s pretty simple really. When we feel uncertain, or scared, or gun-shy from past failures, the part of the brain that activates is the part involved in self-preservation. It mistakes these bad feelings as possible danger and then wants an immediate escape from that ‘feeling of danger’. So, what will ease this feeling right now? Avoidance, games, TV, cleaning the house or office, food, wine, and anything else that distracts us.
Our mind lets go of the task at hand to some extent and the feeling drops. And this part of the brain isn’t looking at where we’ll be in the morning, or next week, or next year by not going what we wanted to.
It’s very simple in terms of mechanism in the mind, but there can be thousands of reasons why an individual has the feeling come up to begin with.
In working thousands of sessions with clients from all walks of life the real issue is often the same. We have a ‘block’ about doing whatever it is we avoid. Overcoming that block is where success becomes much easier.
I used to have a block about speaking to people in professional settings. This year I’m speaking at the Olympia in London to a room full of business owners. I can’t wait.
My advice to you is step back a pace from the issue that’s being avoided and notice the feeling around any block. Tackle the feeling and you’re tackling the block. Make this feel better and the real task will be much easier to get into and complete.
Often ‘the problem’ is not the problem, it can be our thinking and feeling around that problem that does the real damage.
Progress is easier than you think.
Have a great week,
John