We all have self-imposed limitations. We all hold certain beliefs that are limiting and keep us from achieving our business and personal goals:
● I can’t do something
● I can’t have something
● that goal is not achievable
And we rationalise them:
● I don’t have the skills or the knowledge
● I just don’t have the time or the money
● it’s not meant to be
What’s really sad is that if you think you can’t, then you’re absolutely correct. You can’t. So in order to achieve your goals, you have to start thinking in terms of “I can.” How can you shift the way you see yourself and your goals? How can you see them in the light of possibility and optimism instead of negativity and pessimism (often masked as “being realistic”)?
Challenge yourself!
Set challenges with specific actions and deadlines. These don’t necessarily have anything directly to do with your goal (although they can). The point of personal challenges is to get you to see things differently and to build self-confidence.
If you procrastinate, challenge yourself to work on your goal for 10 minutes. That’s all. And by “work on your goal” I mean actually work on it, not just think about it or organize your desk. Then you can go back to whatever you were doing. Why this works: procrastination is based on fear, and action is the best way to overcome fear. Get in the habit of taking 10 minutes a day to do something proactive on your goal first thing in the morning. 10 minutes is nothing in terms of time, but if you focus ONLY on your goal during this time, you’ll accomplish a lot.
If you are overwhelmed with the big picture, multiple demands on your time and have trouble finding time to work on your goals, challenge yourself to say NO to anything that is not a priority. That means you have to know what your priorities are, and you have to be willing to honor those priorities. That doesn’t mean shirking responsibility; it just means delegating or saying no to taking on more than you can handle in the course of a day. Some things just have to wait while your priorities are taken care of!
And this is the most fun challenge of all: You can always challenge yourself to “five more.” Five more what?
● Pages read
● Emails written
● Calls made
● Pushups
● Minutes
● Steps
Once you do five, you can often do ten. And another five… or ten.
Challenges help build your self-esteem and confidence, in small incremental steps.
Inspired by a blog post by Pam Solberg-Tapper on www.managementhelp.org