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Diet & Nutrition

2007-02-01 16:23:00

How to keep your plans for yourself

I have lots of plans for myself and my future, but I never seem to attain them. I get busy and then I put my plans on the back burner. How can I set goals and finally achieve them?

ANSWER: Believe me, you’re not alone. Many people start but never complete their plans. Sometimes we get side tracked by things that seem urgent. Sometimes busyness binds our motives. More often than not, we simply procrastinate persistently until there is no time left to work on our goals. In order to overcome procrastination, we need to look at why we procrastinate in the first place. The two main reasons we procrastinate is habit and fear. One reason we put off working on our goals is that we have made it a habit to procrastinate. A habit is something we do without even thinking about it. We habitually find other things to do when we should be working on our goals. For example, Sues’ New Year’s Resolution was to get organized. She decided to start with her kitchen drawers which had become a catch all for everything from junk mail, to bills, to pens, to batteries. Sue just began working on her project when the phone rang. She answered the phone; before she knew it she had talked to the neighbor for an hour. When she hung up the phone, she noticed the kids’ dirty socks on the floor. Picking them up reminded her she might as well start a load of laundry. Starting the laundry reminded her she needed more detergent so she made a grocery list. Making the grocery list reminded her she needed to start dinner in the crock pot. Before she knew it the day was gone and the clutter drawer remained cluttered. In order to get rid of a bad habit we must replace it with a positive habit. The positive habits Sue could adapt could include blocking a specific amount of time for accomplishing a task and then focusing on that task until it is complete. Letting the phone go to voice mail, planning her day before she began, and finishing one task before she began another would all be great replacement options. Another reason people procrastinate is fear. Lisa Jimenez author of Conquering Fear says it this way, procrastination is either fear of success or fear of failure. Fear of success looks like these statements, “This is too hard”, “This will take too long”, and “If I succeed at this, they’ll expect everything I do to be a success”. Fear of failure looks like these statements, “If I say no, people won’t like me”, “I work better under pressure”, and “Anything worth doing is worth doing perfectly”. When we procrastinate we reveal our fear. If I never start, I have nothing to fear. Someone once told me that Fear stands for False Evidence Appearing Real. In other words, our fears are based on things that aren’t true, we have convinced ourselves that they are. Learning to reframe those paralyzing false beliefs into beliefs that move us to action is a critical key to overcome procrastination. Instead of saying “This is too hard”, restate it as “Challenges are helping me grow”. Instead of saying, “If I say no, people won’t like me”, say “I say no to some things so I can say yes to better opportunities”. By reframing our fears and false beliefs, we can reinvigorate and revitalize our plans and accomplish our goals. What have you been putting off? What goal do you want to accomplish that keeps eluding you? Whether it’s a weight loss goal, a financial goal like saving or investing, a relationship goal, or a career goal, you can accomplish them by overcoming habits and fear that have you procrastinating.