Prevent Achieving Success

Before getting too deep into any program or project, we must take a good hard look at who we are and the barriers that set up for ourselves to prevent achieving success.

You may be thinking you have come to a website like this because you want to achieve success and no real doubt. But for a good portion of you who are here, I can guarantee you that your plans will get sidetracked from a little known force within us called resistance.

We all deal with internal resistance on an ongoing basis. There is no avoiding it, so it needs to be dealt with straight on and early on. In our minds, we may be living the lives of two different people. There is the everyday existence of your self, which goes to a job, does the tasks that are required and maintains the status quo of the way things are. Mainly if you are here at this website, I would say you also have an imaginary self, which is the person you want to be, who is leading the life you want to lead.

For NursePreneurs this alters life is being self-employed, sharing your knowledge and not just getting respect, but getting paid a lot of money to do it. Our resistance in life defeats us from having this entrepreneurial life. How?

Internal resistance wins by taking us away from what we want to do and prevents us from getting to our goals.

Resistance stems from fear. Whether it’s a fear of failure or betrayal, a lack of money, taking a bad job, a fear of responsibility, or even the fear of success. When you start up a new venture like a business, resistance will try to derail you from getting done what you need to do through procrastination and self-sabotage.

You feel resistance the most when you are trying to launch a project or meet a tight deadline. Most businesses or blog will never go anywhere because the resistance to make them succeed is so high in many people. They will start to dabble in a project, but quickly drop it if there are parts to the business that isn’t “fun” or “glamorous.”

Lists of Lists

How many things on your list of things to do have been on there for months? You might not tell yourself that you’re never going to eat healthily or write a book or finish a project, but you probably self-sabotage yourself by saying you will do it next week or next month or next year, maybe when X, Y or Z happens. Internal resistance has the power to destroy your destiny if you let it, so it’s so important to recognize it’s hold on you.

Part of the solution is the awareness that internal resistance is a force in your life. The next part of the resistance is understanding where it comes from. The interesting aspect of resistance is its timing. So the completion of a project or getting started in an area of the unknown that can change the direction of your life. When you see it creep up on you, you may be able to isolate the feelings of fear that are associated with your resistance to doing something.

The final part of the solution is doing something about it. If you focus your resistance on why you are doing something, you can work to redirecting your attention. Resistance is like an energy force that comes in many forms, mostly built out of fear. So taking that step back and reflecting on the Why or the vision can ensure you are aligned with your real purpose or destiny.

Some other ways to resist your resistance are:

1.     Commit a deadline to someone else

Setting a deadline for ourselves, in general, isn’t sufficient because, for the most part, it’s not a big deal if we let ourselves down. But when you add the social element into it, you don’t want to look bad or unprofessional. This idea goes back to declaring your intentions. By making a public declaration, you have set yourself up to be judged. By committing a deadline to someone else, your credibility is on the line.

2.     Do the next action

I find it helpful to break down a big project into morsels. No one goes into a workspace and writes a dissertation, but when you put it on your list of things to do it sits there like a beast—Write dissertation or business plan, print book, 50 blogs, etc. This task is crazy. Break it down—and not just “write chapter one.” Break down chapter one into parts, sections, and paragraphs. Then your action is to write article three in section two of chapter one. You can write a paragraph a day. And guess what a paragraph a day is chapter one very quickly!

3.     Turn the noise down

It is virtually impossible to do certain tasks to music, with frequent interruptions, emails dinging, text messages incoming. Every time you are distracted by something, it takes a significant amount of time to return to doing what you were originally doing. If you have a particularly cumbersome project to find a space where you can work uninterrupted. Put the cell phone and iPad and computer away. Contrary to what you think you cannot watch TV and listen to music while thinking, they are total brain drains—shut them down. You can follow up on your favorite TV series after you finish the project that has been lingering for months on your desk.

4.     Recognize what you are not doing

Draw up a list of ongoing projects every week and figure out what you are not doing on a routine basis. Re-evaluate if they need to be done. Don’t torture yourself with projects that don’t contribute to your overall success or big picture—but be honest with yourself. Every Monday before you start work, draw up this list of what needs to get done, and do it.

5.     Schedule 60 minute solutions

I was asked to write a chapter for a book which I was very excited about, so I accepted. I was given six months to write the episode, which is precisely how long the task sat on my to-do list. In the last month before the chapter was due, I spent a ridiculous amount of time concocting plausible excuses about why I couldn’t get it done and how long of an extension I would need.

A friend of mine reminded me of how good this chapter would be for my career. So I took a step back, re-evaluated the “why” I accepted this chapter in the first place—certainly it wasn’t to torture myself, then committed myself to finish it. I scheduled 60-minute blocks in my calendar to work on manageable chunks of the chapter every day for three weeks. I treated the obligation like a meeting, turned off email, and worked only on the section that was assigned for that day, no more and no less. I ended up handing the chapter in two days late, but I overcame my resistance and can proudly show off the book I helped write!

 Acknowledge your Resistance

Internal resistance is powerful and needs to be acknowledged, but it can be defeated with the right focus and willpower. Don’t be the majority of people who allow resistance to prevent them from living the life they want to live. You can create the business of your dreams, you can be successful with the right tools, resources, and people on your side, and you can be the person you want to be.