One of the biggest obstacles to moving forward in your projects and your life is procrastination, stillness. You know that nothing will happen if you don’t take action. But when time has come to move, you just can’t make it.
You stay in front of a blank page, with your doubts. And nothing is moving on.
But why is that?
It’s simple, your brain decided for you and went into comfort mode. It does not like change, which it interprets as a danger.
However, we have just as much ability to mobilize and adapt. We constantly do this on a daily basis. It is therefore interesting to be aware of this mechanism. It is there, by default, and made to protect us. And we have the ability to override comfort mode and spring into action.
Create clarity to divert the traps of our brain
In order to meet this challenge, the idea is to create clarity for yourself, on a certain number of fundamental elements.
Define your values
Whether you know them or not, (re)defining your values allows you to make decisions more easily. They are supporting you, as guiding principles in your life.
When you are working on a project for example, it is very useful to know them, so you can decide how you are going to do things, and to choose what you are going to do or not.
If you have a value of autonomy or independence, you will refuse projects or clients who will be in “micromanagement” mode.
You can do or redo the exercise of defining your values here.
Know your needs
This is the second level of clarity you can have for yourselves: we all have needs.
Starting with physiological needs like eating, drinking, sleeping. Usually, these are the easiest to identify.
Then there are the needs around security, then everything related to the feeling of belonging, then esteem, and finally the needs related to self-actualization such as creativity, problem solving.
Understanding your needs is a determining factor in living better and communicating better with others. Again, this element will allow us to make decisions and set a framework and limits that work for us.
If you need calm and peace, we will say no to projects requiring too much interaction or conflict management.
The best way to understand your needs is to listen to your negative emotions. When you feel anger or fear, for example, ask yourself: what do I really need, here and now? (And we are talking about need, not want ;).
Define your vision and goals
The next level of clarity you can give to yourself is defining your vision and concrete goals to achieve it.
I told you about it some time ago and, if you want to go deeper into this point, I invite you to consult this article: how to define and keep up o, your objectives.
Once you have these three levels of clarity in place, it will be much easier for you to overcome the obstacles.
For example, if in doubt, re-read your vision and goals. Ask yourself what is the next action to take regarding these elements.
If you have to make a decision or make a choice, ask yourself what is most aligned with our values and your needs.
And finally, do not hesitate to come back to these fundamental elements regularly, to check that you are still in phase. We all change, evolve over time, please allow us to update from time to time.
