What’s holding you back from success?

The other day, I was sitting at my desk and I needed to do some work on a project… but I couldn’t get anything done. After awhile, I realized that I was procrastinating, delaying, and becoming easily distracted with other things.

So I pulled out a useful technique that I’ve found really helps me when this happens.

I went somewhere else (that’s always important to get a change of scenery!) and I started writing down all of the things that were holding me back from succeeding at my project.

My list start small with stuff like “I don’t really feel like working” and “I would rather spend time on Facebook.” (Hey, you gotta be honest if you want this to work!). Then, as I peeled back the layers of my thinking, I realized that there were other reasons, too: “I don’t feel ready to do this project because there are two other important things that need to be done first” and “this project isn’t as rewarding as I would have hoped” and so on. I kept pushing deeper and deeper until I had a list of nearly a dozen reasons that were holding me back from succeeding on that project.

When you do this exercise, what you end up with is a to-do list of “anchors” that are keeping you from moving forward. Sometimes they are easy things like “I don’t have enough information to start the project” and sometimes they are harder like “I don’t have the confidence to start the project”.

Then you address each one. One-by-one, no matter how difficult it is. By the time you’re done, you’ll have inadvertently started on your project (and perhaps be farther along than you realized!) and you’ll have eliminated many of the barriers and road blocks that would normally have arisen part way through your project.

 

Posted on February 7, 2012