HABIT YOU MUST STOP DOING IF YOU WANT TO ACHIEVE YOUR DREAM GOAL

1. Stop procrastinating

Procrastination is a no-brainer. But the habit is, again, not so much in the actual non-action than the thinking around the actions you need to take to getting to where you want to be. Procrastination has different sources, but the big ones are around thinking small and so creating glass ceilings that continue to keep you small.

You look at others achieving their dreams, get into comparison thinking, think of all the reasons you’re at a disadvantage in that comparison, think of all the things you need first to get going, focus on the things that are missing, and all the reasons you can’t move forward unless such and such is in place.Remove yourself from all that mind chatter. Visualize yourself stepping out of your own head and body and as a bigger version of you looking back at yourself and all that thinking and thinking. Extend compassion and forgiveness to that you who has been keeping herself small. Tell her you see (or hear) the words in her head she’s repeated over and over. Tell those thoughts they’re done their work of protecting you. And change those thoughts by, for example, changing ‘I’m not business savvy enough’ to ‘I am learning to be super business savvy’. Switch them! Say bye-bye to untrue thoughts by replacing them with words that enable healthy and productive thinking around your goals.

2. Stop focusing on the future

Ironically, it’s the focus on action and your very goal that’s been paralyzing you. Breathe. Take your focus off the goal itself, the steps to getting there, and back to your breath. The habit of living in the future to the neglect of being present will not get you ahead. To get ahead you will have to learn to keep your eye on the goal and live life now, being fully present in the now.

When you bring yourself back to the now, you become so much more aware. Getting to your goal doesn’t happen by following a strict strategy or strategic plan gurus and mentors lay before you because they achieved their dream goal a certain way. Your circumstance, strengths, essentially who you are, will determine that you do things a bit differently to that path. There are tried and proven steps to achieving goals, but no two people are the same. You won’t be able to do things the very same way another person did. Bring yourself to the now, breathe and look for opportunities in the now that present themselves. They become clear to you when you step out of hustling your way into the future and breathe.

 3. Stop racing after multiple goals

Anyone who has achieved their big dream goal will tell you that they had to develop laser sharp focus. Often high achievers want to do it all at once. Rid yourself of the thought now that you must do it all.

Some things are wonderful to have and do, but for the next months or few years they have to go. Maybe they were never truly in alignment with your ultimate dream goal and to live true abundance, joy, meaning and impact.

Ask yourself, is doing such and such going to support my dream goal or is it a distraction for a purpose that in fact takes me away from my ultimate purpose and goal. Remember, we can have quite a few great goals but to put in the energy, time and investment will mean a distraction from the big one. We can’t do it all at once. We are human. Drop the habit of trying to achieve this, that and the other because they’re all great, and focus on the one big goal and what truly matters in life.

 4. Stop perfectionism

Perfectionism keeps you frozen. It’s rooted in fear of not achieving your goal or doing things well enough. Perfectionists get easily distracted in the detail and lose sight of the big picture. Details are important but they become your Achilles heal when you allow them to hinder the real progress you need to be making.

Fear of getting it wrong will creep up continuously. Tell fear where to go. Literally. Breathe and take that step forward, regardless. If you make a mistake, forgive yourself, learn and take another step forward. It’s okay to stumble and fall. Every great entrepreneur and anyone who achieved something incredible made quite a few mistakes to get to their ultimate dream goal.

Looping back to #2, breathe and bring yourself into the present. When you do, you allow yourself to innovate and begin to enjoy the process. When you focus on perfection, you are blind to innovation, are at risk of beginning to hate the whole goal and what you’re doing to get to it, and sabotage ever seeing light at the end of the tunnel.

 5. Stop being in your head

Stop being in your head all the time, thinking, planning, re-doing the plan, etc. I’ll loop back to #2 over and over because it’s so critical to breathe. Getting to that ultimate dream goal is about learning the art of innovating, and that can only happen by breaking the pattern of thinking and being that keeps you small. It’s an unconscious pattern of thinking that creates an illusion of comfort and predictability.

Innovation happens with impulses, insights, sensing where the energy lies for you to embrace and work with, and always in present time. Once you have an ‘impulse’ (idea, insight, guidance) to do something, get up and do it! Do some type of action, even if it’s super tiny, that is in your goal’s alignment.

If you wait, then you allow fear, worry, and doubt to creep in. They always do to keep you small, not intentionally to keep you small, but that’s what they serve to do. When you act on that impulse, you begin to trust yourself more, dare yourself more and actually do more to get to where you want to be. You create the habit of acting on your guidance and ideas, and that’s precisely what we need to achieve big goals.

6. Stop stuffing the schedule

We’re looping back to #3 where we not only get distracted by things we thought were important but by tiny things too. Whenever we’re about to take that one step forward, our brain scans the environment for something else. Now that you’re aware of this, nip it! Nip the habit by preparing for focus. Before you take the step towards your goal, shut off your phone, close all other tabs on your computer. Don’t lie to yourself that you’ll just answer a list of emails to get them out of the way. Shut out all those tiny distractions before you begin, and not by beginning them!

Your dream goal doesn’t get stuffed into your schedule. Clear your schedule to make the energy and time. Productivity doesn’t really happen with trying to do all the tiny things at the same time. Multitasking is not for the big goal. It distracts from the critical ability to focus and be present.

Your dream goal is not subject to other people’s schedules and preferences. You want to truly achieve that big thing? Not only prepare to focus and clear your schedule start to practice saying ‘No’. Achieving big goals is learning to be a leader of your destiny and life. Put your goal and the things that truly matter in life ahead. When someone asks you for a favor or your time, weigh in on how that might distract from what matters before you say ‘Yes’.

 7. Stop focusing on the past

You are growing into a bigger version of yourself in order to achieve that big goal. You grow into the level of being, acting and thinking that supports the energy of your goal.

When you focus on who you’ve been in the past, your failures and what others have claimed as your limits, you freeze. Forgive yourself, and forgive others. Free yourself from their chains and your own chains. Truly, truly find it in your heart to forgive. Set aside time to meditate on forgiving transgressions and mistakes. You are doing yourself and your ability to do great things the chance you need and deserve.

You are growing, learning, and so worthy of your amazing goal. If you have a dream in your heart, I fully believe it is planted in your heart because it is yours to be and to have. Now you have to step out of the old energy that’s held you stuck and step into and breathe the larger version of you. Stop the habit of reliving the past over and over. Make a decision to close that chapter through forgiveness.

Source: https://medium.com/thrive-global