Do you suffer from
- procrastination,
- inability to focus,
- racing from one “how-to-market” course to another in search of the magic bullet,
- letting every little breeze distract you from your marketing?
May I ask how you do that? If I were to be you, how would I know how to start procrastinating? How would I know that it was time to distract myself with something (say, a breeze)? This is a very serious question.
From the inside it looks like things are happening to you. All of a sudden you have to check your email or do a little web research starting with FaceBook, make a post on Twitter, read a post on Twitter. Then you notice the time. OMG, I need to get dinner ready!
From the outside it looks like a person who has difficulty focusing and staying on task. The outsider doesn’t see any of the urgency you feel. Yet those feelings are real, right? You have a thought, a feeling and you go with the flow. Sometimes you go with the flow before you even know you’ve had a thought.
You’ve got sole control of your mind. You are the one who lets ideas and beliefs in and the one who is in charge of getting rid of those that no longer serve you.
Anonymous quote I like: Others can stop you temporarily, only you can do it permanently.
So, how do you stop yourself from taking action?
If I were to be you for a day, how would I know how and when to distract myself from marketing? Is it a voice, an image, a feeling, words? What would I have to call to mind so that I could keep myself from taking action and moving forward?
Try out this exercise. When you notice you’ve distracted yourself, stop and think about what you were doing, thinking and feeling before the distraction. Listen for voices, look for images, see or hear the words, locate the feeling in your body. Now, actually describe out loud what someone else would have to do to get the feelings and thoughts that distracted you.
Next, ask yourself these questions:
- What would happen if I stopped that loop of thinking? What would be possible?
- What could I think about instead that would move me forward?
- What is the thought I must think that will move me towards what I want?
This exercise may take a little practice to find the answers. You may become aware that you’ve distracted yourself hours or days later. Keep practicing.
If you follow through you will learn what has been going on in your mind behind your back, so to speak. You will identify the cues that send you scurrying for a distraction, a way to put yourself to “sleep” so you don’t have to feel what you were on the verge of feeling before you distracted yourself.
This is powerful medicine. You are recognizing your beliefs that are sabotaging your creation of the business you want and the expression of yourself in the world. Awareness is the first step to a breakthrough.
Let me know the ‘aha’ you get from doing this exercise. Email me at drlik@beliefbreakthrough.com
