Kevin Bemel ·
Are You Using This Excuse for Not Reaching Your Goal?
2-½ minutes to read
You need to take action. You won’t accomplish your goal if you don’t. Finding the job you want. Improving your physical fitness. Getting closer to your spouse. Becoming closer to G-d. All require doing something. The problem is what you did in the past didn’t work. And acting for the sake of being busy is pointless. What do you do?
Not Knowing What to Do
Procrastination tops the list of things I bawl myself out for. Work time has to be productive. I’ve learned to alternate easy tasks with those that take intense focus. This keeps my momentum going.
When I start putting off a difficult task, I need a quick way to get back on track. Once I’ve identified the source of my procrastinating I can overcome it.
You learn a lot from helping people get past their barriers. Having coached over 1,300 veterans in the last eighteen months, I’ve found most procrastinate because they’re unsure. It comes in two forms:
- Lack of information.
- Lack of self-confidence.
Of the two, the first one is by far the easier to solve. You need a couple of things:
- Data. The Internet puts a massive amount of information data at your fingertips. You know you need inside connections to get the job you want. Research their names. Proceed.
- Process. Figuring out what steps to take and how to execute them is more challenging. If you don’t know how to build relationships you can learn from trial and error. Or you can get trained.
At times you may overload on information. In that case, arrange your options from best to worst. Better choices will stand out. If they don’t, order them at random. Then act on option 1. If it works, great! If not, move on to option 2.
Working the process gives you momentum. Agonizing over it produces idleness. Careful choosing won’t guarantee success. Acting consistently will.
Not Wanting to Do It
The real problem comes when lack of information conceals a lack of self-confidence. The scenario usually plays out like this:
If I only knew ______________, I could ________________.
For example, fill in the blanks with “how to better write my resume” and “get the job I want.” If you're relying on your resume to get you a job you'll be waiting a long time.
Often this attitude comes from having tried things that didn’t work. Here’s where you have to be careful.
[Tweet "Most of the steps that take you to a goal are boring or unpleasant. Do them anyway. ∞ Rabs"]
Are you sure you don’t know what you need to do? Or do you just not like doing it? Think of how many nasty things you had to do in basic training. Many seemed useless. Now you laugh at them. Civilian life isn’t any different.
The worst case comes when you get discouraged. Motivating yourself to take the right steps yet again seems pointless. You convince yourself it’s a waste of time. There has to be a better way, right?
Do that long enough and you’ll kill your self-confidence. At that point, you won’t take action because you’re sure it won’t help.
Be honest with yourself. Don’t give yourself an out. Do you really want to reach your goal? Just plow forward no matter what.
Teddy Roosevelt famously said:
If you could kick the person in the pants responsible for most of your troubles, you wouldn’t sit for a month.
How about giving your backside a break in 2017?
What information do you need to reach your goal?
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