Once you let negative thoughts creep into your head -- like "I can't do it," "I don't want to do it," and "this is too hard" -- your resolve is stopped in its tracks and you become paralyzed into inaction.
So how do you avoid this mental trap? You get to work -- without even thinking about it!
If you start thinking about the myriad reasons why you don't want to do something, the chances of you doing it drop precipitously. In other words, we won't be inclined to take action when we're subconsciously trotting out reasons for why we shouldn't.
For example, let's say you're trying to lose weight. If you find any excuse in the book not to go to the gym -- you're tired after working all day, you don't like to exercise when it's dark outside, you hate being all sweaty -- it's only going to be more of an uphill climb to reach your ultimate goal. Why not just head out to the gym without thinking about it? You can even leave your gym clothes in the car and drive there right after work so that you don't risk going home and changing your mind.
We need to be conscious of the mental roadblocks we impose on ourselves and preemptively find a way around them. We need to focus more on the end goal and less on the challenging steps it will take to get there. Again, if we ruminate over the latter, we won't get very far.
We should strive to become go-getters and action-takers, letting our excuses for not working toward our goals go out the window.
Does this mean you'll always achieve every single goal? I wouldn't say that, but at least you know you gave it your all. It's better to come up short after working as hard as you could than to fail because you were held back by the inertia and doubts you imposed on yourself.
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