Episode 20 S3 - Overcome Innate Resistance to Start Working on Your Goals

Whenever anyone tells us something to do, we have pushback against that idea to see if they really mean it, and also to reinforce what we’re doing instead of changing. It happens even when we ask ourselves to do something different. 

Instead of telling ourselves to do something, we should let ourselves opt in. We change much easier when we are able to believe we are choosing to do an action rather than forced to do an action or reluctantly complying with a protocol.

Is there something that I have been putting off, that I could help myself to do by imagining how nice it will be to have the result of it being done? Getting that feeling of having the result makes you naturally more motivated and ready to take action.

Once you agree that your desired action is a great idea, it makes it harder to not do it.

Getting over the hump of not wanting to spend your day doing something you don’t think you’ll enjoy can be helped by noticing if there’s something you’re currently doing that isn’t bringing you a lot of joy or accomplishment, and asking if you could use that time to try the new thing. If you want to stop playing on your phone, for instance, and want to get your laundry done – you can use the impulse to play on your phone as the reminder to pick up the laundry basket and just put the laundry in already! This way it’s harder to argue with yourself about getting started, and you’ll likely still have time for your phone later anyway. 😊

You can also overcome some resistance by recognizing how much energy you spend on thinking about the action you haven’t taken yet, and really feel in your bones how much easier it would feel to have just done the action already and not still have to do it.

Action in a lot of ways can be an energy saver for you, but you just never thought of it that way!