Bridge Your “Action” to Your Want
What causes you the most stress?
One of the major root causes of stress is the disconnect between wants/goals and action.
Think about your own stress.
Describe what stresses you out.
Now sort which of your stressors reveal a gap between what you say you want and what you actually do in any given week.
This is true for me.
I have a confession to make.
Easily 65% of the stress in my life falls into this category.
I have all these beautiful coaching skills to manage my mind, create my best results, and yet…
Sometimes I just don’t have alignment between what I claim to want with all of my heart and the choices that I make on any given day.
In other words, I don’t follow through on my intention with matching action.
Look at your life — health, business/career, family.
Do you see areas where the “do” doesn’t match the “desire”?
This is a gold mine of information about yourself.
When you notice the “want” vs. “do” gap, pause and do the following:
- Listen to your thoughts while in “Observation Mode.” Write down all of your thoughts of resistance. Try not to judge, though you’re welcome to take down the notes of your Inner Critic/Judge. (We all seem to have one!) Imagine that you’re a detective solving a crime. Interview every single voice in your mind without taking any voice’s side. What does your neutral observer self notice when seeing these different thoughts out on paper?
- Note what you are doing and what you are not doing. List your actions. Are you working toward your goal? If not, what are you doing instead? What would a camera see? Compare the list of actions to the thoughts you jotted down in #1. What do you see comparing these lists?
- When your actions are out of alignment with your goal, ask what you don’t like about achieving your goal. What!?! This is a different approach to problem solving. Listen to all the ways your mind says the goal will cause problems for you. Is there a part of your brain that is fighting this goal because it thinks something unsavory will happen in your life?
If you take the time to do this work, you will be well rewarded.
If what you do doesn’t match what you say you want, well, that’s valuable information.
It’s an opportunity to reflect, learn and recalibrate.
Then…you have an opportunity to make a decision. You can choose to…
- Change the goal.
- Or quit it.
- Or recommit and develop a plan to manage your resistance.
In your gut, you probably know what’s best for you.
Pay attention to yourself, your gaps and then choose to do what you really, really want!
Enjoy exploring!
P.S. Please click here to sign up for my free mini-class “3 Ways to Reduce Stress TODAY!”
