Unveiling the Barrier To Change

Many of us have things we’d like to change: our exercise and diet habits, procrastination and productivity habits, patience and mindfulness habits, quitting bad habits, decluttering and finances, reading and learning, and doing all the things we want to do in life.

But very often we fall short of our hopes.

What’s the problem? Why do we struggle with these changes?

There are lots of reasons, some of them external … but the main reason that it’s difficult to stick to these changes is actually internal.

The main reason changing our lives is hard: we get in our own way.

How? Our thinking is the problem. See if you’ve done any of these:

• You mess up or procrastinate on your habit changes, and then are harsh or critical to yourself.
• It’s time to do what you set out to do, but then you put it off and look for something easier. You go to distractions.
• You are doing something uncomfortable but then look for a way out, tell yourself you can’t do it.
• When you’re doing something hard, you stress out about it, setting unreasonable expectations and agonizing about whether you can do it.
• You fantasize about how this will turn out when you meet your goal, but then worry and stress out about whether you will hit that goal.
• You feel bad about yourself, doubt yourself, beat yourself up … and this prevents you from even taking action.

I think most of us have done these at some time or another, often without even being aware of it. We get in our own way or make things more difficult than they already are.