by Linda-Ann Stewart

Do you want to lose weight, change a habit, learn a skill, or build a business? When you have a goal, and you’re not making any headway towards accomplishing it, you could be unconsciously sabotaging yourself. This is frustrating and discouraging, especially if you don’t know what’s preventing your progress.

If this is true for you, you’re probably making decisions that worked for you in the past, but haven’t been updated. Those old ideas aren’t helping you to grow, expand or to achieve your vision. Instead of acting unconsciously, the solution is to be more deliberate about your choices.

Overcome Self-Sabotage

Here are some common ways you sabotage yourself and how to overcome them.

1. You crave freedom. You don’t want to be limited by routine or structure and you seek to be spontaneous. Although spontaneity is important to enrich your personal life, it can undermine your professional goals. Impulsiveness causes you to follow whatever idea is uppermost in your mind at the time. This brings chaos and confuses the Law of Attraction. The Law of Attraction acts on what you focus on. When you’re not focused, the Law won’t know what to bring you. Unfortunately, spontaneity is the opposite of consistency, which is necessary for success.

Instead of winging it, create a structure and plan for yourself. Routine serves the purpose of freeing your mind to be more spontaneous in other areas of your life. Create a plan of what you’re going to do the next day. This gives the Law of Attraction the instruction of what you want. Allow time and space for the unexpected to take place.

2. You react to situations. When you react to a situation, you act in the same way you’ve done in the past. This doesn’t serve you when you want to change your future. You can’t do the same thing over and over and expect a different result. The only way to receive a different outcome is to change the way you think about the situation and act towards it. When you change the way you think, the Law of Attraction can change your experience.

Instead of reacting, consciously choose how to respond. If the situation happens often, you’ll want to plan your action ahead of time. Then, when it happens the next time, take a few deep breaths before you respond. When you think through an action, either before or at the time, you’re coming from place of power. When you feel empowered, you have more of a connection to the Universe.

3. You give up after a setback. If you fall off your diet, you might be discouraged and abandon your diet altogether. When you hit a block while learning to play the piano, you quit. Setbacks are going to happen. They’re a gift from the Universe. Two steps forward and one back allow you to solidify progress. Setbacks are also the way you discover what doesn’t work and help you to figure out what will succeed.

Setbacks don’t obstruct you unless you let them. Instead, they can be stepping stones. Since they are going to arise, plan for what you’ll do when they do. What would be the common setbacks you will experience? Decide on specific actions to take, or statements you’ll repeat to yourself to keep you on course. Your determination and commitment energizes the Law of Attraction, making it easier for it to perform for you.

4. You procrastinate. Procrastination is generally triggered by fear. You don’t know how to do a task, you dread the tedium, you’re concerned that it won’t be good enough and so you resist beginning it. Because of that, you wait until the last minute to attend to the project. This is stressful, and because you delayed, you rarely can give it your best effort. Also, stress blocks access to your intuition and guidance from the Universe.

You may have to force yourself, but do one tiny chore concerning the project. Just start with a single action. Decide to spend five minutes on it each day. Taking small steps will build up momentum, and you’ll whittle away at the task. Very quickly, it won’t seem so difficult, and you’ll find it easier to complete it. Now that you’re not resisting, you’re more in the flow of inspiration from the Universe.

By deliberately changing your responses, you take charge of your life. This empowers you with greater freedom, creativity, success and peace of mind.

Affirmation:

The Universe wants the best for me. I let go of old ideas and reactions, as they no longer serve me. I open my mind and heart to the Universe to guide and direct my every thought and action. As I stay mindful of my responses, I stay in the flow of Universal Good. Changing my thoughts, changes my actions, and thus changes my life.

Watch the accompanying article, How to Stick to Your Goals.

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