One Small Step Can Change a Life - and Will!
Posted: Friday, September 25, 2009
by Douglas Cartwright
Living Words Coaching and Training
Procrastination, self-doubt, and perfectionism all of these SEEM to be the problems that are keeping us from making progress towards our dreams.
But one of the most important things I learned in my coach training is that the first issue is almost never the real issue. These things are symptom. And the cause behind those symptoms is often - fear.
Whenever your brain detects a danger your amygdale light up, and you get the fight or flight response which sends adrenaline rushing through your body. Most people react to this perfectly natural chemical process by assuming they are cowards or procrastinators. This is not true, and the feelings can be dealt with (ask any successful soldier) but were not going to tackle that here.
What we need is a way to make progress without activating the amygdale.
You may have heard the advice before to take small steps but perhaps you never realised WHY it was so important if you tend to hesitate and procrastinate. If you really suffer from inaction and paralysis of analysis then this advice will be extremely valuable to you.
What you need to do is to take tiny steps, steps so apparently small and trivial that the amygdale thinks oh, this isn't dangerous I'll let it pass.
When I say tiny, I mean tiny. Trivial. Almost insignificant but still in the direction of your dream.
If you want to start a writing project, go buy a pen.
The next day, get out a piece of paper and leave it on the table.
The next day write one word.
The next day, write two words.
Or if you want to meet someone special:
Write out one quality you want in a partner. Just one.
The next time, write another.
Go to the pub with friends and ignore any potential partners (if this is too big then walk past the pub a few times with a friend. Stand near the door for ten seconds.)
I recently finished my website (it took me about 15 hours altogether) and when I started I had a blank page. I told myself I'm just going to put a border around the page. So I did it.
I said I'm just going to put a text-box on the screen.
And I did it.
I'm just going to insert a picture here.
And by focusing on one little thing at a time I created www.overcomingprocrastination.co.uk
You may be tempted to dismiss the idea of taking such small steps. But how much worse can a tiny step towards your goal be than none at-all?
Douglas Cartwright is the creator of www.livingwords.net and coaches people how to put intentions into action by helping them deal with the psychological knots we tie ourselves into. Hes giving away one of the most powerful implementation techniques he knows at www.overcomingprocrastination.co.uk find out why!
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Top-level comments on this article: (1 total)Hi Douglas, this is great advice! Thanks for sharing it. Blessings to you, Teresa.
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