Sometimes I run up against this challenge of not following through on my tasks because I have changed my mind set since I wrote up my goals. (poor decision making probably at fault here)

Goals are tremendously exciting and stimulating at the time of writing them up, but sometimes my feelings change somewhere in between setting them and actually taking action on them. Could this be a fairly common challenge in people who are living their dream?

What Do You Do When You Don’t Feel Like Doing It? (following your plan, taking action, etc.) You know, at those times when your negative self talk is overwhelming the positive feelings you had previously.

When you now keep saying you really should, all the while dreading and knowing in your heart that it will probably never happen for you, even though it needs to happen in order for you to realize your goal.

That haunting feeling that creeps in knowing you will not want to complete your plan as scheduled because you probably won’t want to actually do what is required. Because you had been here before, and you didn’t follow through on it that time either. That reluctance you began to feel even as you wrote it on your to do list.

Common examples might be: consistently exercising for fitness, following eating plans for weight loss, or salespeople making prospecting calls, etc. (I remember the last one being particularly challenging in the past).

Have you ever felt those feelings? I sure have, and I’m guessing that just about anyone challenging themselves with tough goals has them from time to time too.

What do you do when you can’t seem to bring yourself to that action threshold which separates doing it from not doing it? What holds you back? What spurs you on?

Is it real or imagined? Can you control it? Is it fear (insert your specific fear here), lack of knowledge, low motivation or I hate to say this but laziness? (I don’t think there are any lazy people, just those lacking motivation.)

How do you get yourself to follow through when you overcome this reluctance in other things? What is the difference for you when you do it and when you don’t?

I’m sure there have been times that you would rather have been anywhere else, but you took action anyway. You did overcome the reluctance and everything went according to plan because you made a decision that this was important to blast through and get it done. And so you did.

So, what did you do to change your mind from not wanting to do it, to actually getting it done? (I’m thinking that an English major could pick this apart because of all the bad grammar, but so what?)

Some strategies I use to shift my mental state or attitude for taking action are:

Affirming my Power. Affirmations.
Asking myself better or different Questions.
Changing my Physiology. (Posture)
Use Momentum. Just start.
Increasing it’s Importance (making it non negotiable)
Renew my Commitment. Make it public.
Making it Fun or Exciting.
Break it into smaller, more manageable tasks.
Changing or resetting my goal deadline.
Calling a Mentor.

Are you using any other strategies that are working well for you? I’d really like to hear how others are consistently solving this all too common challenge. Anyone up for a discussion on how they have gone about overcoming this particular problem? Or how others could model what you are doing?

Al Smith
——————————————————————
We have a FREE Ebook version of “The Power Of Setting Goals” available among many other free reports on our Free Ebooks And Reports section of the RGG Ezines page. Just scroll down and download it FREE.

Related Reading — Some of our more popular posts are here:

• How To Get Motivated To Achieve Your Goals
• First The Mission Statement Then Goals That Align
• Goal Setting Practices Vary In The Details
• Build Your Self Motivation And Assure Your Success
• 6 Goal Setting Mistakes Not To Make In Your Planning