What are you avoiding?

What are you avoiding?

We’ve all been there. We have somewhere to be, or something we have to do, or someone we have to call…and we don’t. We make an excuse, we find something else that needs our attention, we create a false sense of needing to do that other thing…While the thing we really should be doing doesn’t get done. So why are you avoiding what you should be doing?

  We can blame a lot of things for why we don’t attack things and instead choose to avoid. It’s been a long day. I don’t even know where to start? I don’t have time. I’ll have time for it later. Or what tends to be the most popular…I’m just not motivated. 

The science on motivation though is that it doesn’t happen before you get started, it happens after you start. Once you get going on something…most of us tend to stay with it, or push through, or find our flow. So the real enemy isn’t how hard or complex or undesirable a thing is, it’s the finding the discipline to get started. Once you initiate, chances are you’ll find your rhythm. 

So how do you help yourself get over this? Break up your tasks into smaller pieces. You might find it easier to get started if what you have to do is smaller and then who knows, you might just keep rolling. Another thing to do is to say “if it takes less than five minutes, just do it now.” 

Once you stop avoiding getting started, you’ll feel the weight come off your shoulders of having less on your to do list and the excitement of feeling yourself getting things done.