What if we got rid of the “I must first feel like doing it ” barrier, allow ourselves to feel whatever we are feeling and just do it anyway? In other words, exercise our will.
The truth of the matter is that this works because we all do it sometimes, however we don’t apply this method consistently and there are two reasons why we don’t:
You don’t really want to do whatever it is you are resisting doing or you have given your power away.
Here’s how to deal with both of these:
Let go of that which is not yours -
You may think you want to do something but you could have this on your ‘to do’ list because someone else thinks it’s a great idea, not you.
If you don’t genuinely want to do something then there’s only one way to deal with this. Be honest! Get rid of it and you’ll stop causing yourself unnecessary self-suffering. Period.
And secondly,
Let your ‘inner giant’ shine -
Sometimes the task at hand feels too overwhelming, not because it is, but because you have allowed it to grow into a big scary mountain which seems insurmountable. When you reach this point you have given whatever activity you don’t want to do, power over you. It’s time to let your ‘inner giant’ stand up and be heard.
Try saying and ‘feeling’ this affirmation many times throughout your day. Make it a mantra.
" I can Do It "
Simply by saying these words out loud often, you will FEEL more powerful and you will BE more powerful.
Secondly you must downsize the scary mountain. Instead of becoming overwhelmed by the big picture break it down into smaller pieces.
Depending on what it is you want to do, reduce the quantity or time or both.
Let’s look at an example in action:
- If you have 2000 emails to sort through, don’t focus on the big number. The very thought of having to work through so many will stop you in your tracks. What if you decided to sort through 20, 50 or 100 a day until they were all done? Wouldn’t this be a lot less intimidating? By doing this you will have reduced the quantity.
- You could also reduce the time. Thinking about how long it would take to work through 2000 emails might put you off ever starting, but if you set yourself a period every day of say 30 minutes to sort through as many emails as you can in that time, wouldn’t this be more acceptable as a plan of action?
- By consciously “standing tall” and reducing the task so that it becomes more attractive to achieve, you will be bigger than it and you will conquer it eventually.
When have you had something on your ‘to do list’ that you needed to drop because it wasn’t what you really wanted to do? Do you have something now that needs to go?
What task have you resisted doing which when you broke it down into manageable pieces you got done? Do you have something now that you can reduce?
