Learning to take Action Consistently

[Gabriel.B]

Hello Everyone,

For anyone how might have popped by on my last thread, you might know that I've struggling to find a way to take consistent action, I've tried goals & plans, building discipline, time management, motivation, visualisation etc. But I've never been able to maintain a regular relaxed pace for over 2 months.

But thanks to the help from members of this forum what became clear to me was that the one thing I had not tried was the 'Core-belief process' which is basically changing my deep embedded negative beliefs about myself, so that's what I'm going to try next.

I'm going to keep this thread updated for the next 3 months (May, June, July) with weekly reflections on how things went and what challenges I faced and how I might have gone about overcoming them, a kind of journal if you will. I am posting this online because I feel it could be of value to other people that might struggle in the same area. Not to say it's the same reason for everyone, but it might be of service in some way.

So here is the first weeks reflection:


3rd-9th May-08

I had another months an a half worth of 'inactivity' behind me, so I was trying to get down to the core of my problem, after the above mentioned thread with very helpful forum members I came down to conclusion that it might really be nothing than my beliefs that were holding me back, since I'm very passionate about my goals and what I do, and I've been involved with PD for a couple of years as well now, trying many different approaches and techniques bar this one.

The technique in summary (from Marc Allen 'The Millionaire Course')
Summary

-We are limited only by our beliefs. This is the same as saying we are limited only by our thoughts.
-Our beliefs are not true in themselves, but they become true in our experience if we believe them.
-We can change our beliefs. Many of them naturally change and evolve throughout our lives, but we can also consciously change them. So why not change them for the better? We can consciously choose to create a more satisfying life experience.
-There is a simple process that helps us change our beliefs: the core belief process. It involves answering these questions -it is especially effective when we're in a difficult or stressful situation:

1.What problem, situation, or area of your life do you want to improve?
2.What emotions are you feeling?
3.What physical sensations are you feeling?
4.What are you thinking about?
5.What is the worst thing that could happen in this situation?
6.What is the best thing that could happen?
7.What fear or limiting belief is keeping you from creating what you want in this situation?
8.Create an affirmation to counteract and correct the negative, limiting belief.
9.Say or write your affirmation repeatedly over a period of several days.


So I went through the core-belief process and wrote down what negative beliefs where holding me back, the ones I found were actually very old and must have developed during my time at school. Initially I wrote out quite a lot but when summarising them it came down to these four:

-I can't finish things
-I will always fail
-I cannot take action consistently
-I will never reach my goals

When I wrote these down I realised how strongly embedded they felt, like as if they were the truth, which got me rather emotional, the idea that these beliefs could be the one thing that were holding me back for so long!...I made positive affirmations to counteract the negative ones:

-I am now gaining a clear vision of my 2008 goals & Plans
-I am now 100% committed to my 2008 goals.
-I am now taking action consistently towards my 2008 goals
-I am now accomplishing my 2008 goals

These developed over last week and I refine them every once in a while, like adding the '2008' just seemed to add clarity. I write these down daily, filling two pages and do it two times a day, apart from that I've also created 'mind movies' which repeat the new affirmations and other positive beliefs -I think this helps a lot as well, it seems to bring out the emotion and counteract the resistance.
I'm not sure how long the process of fully changing my beliefs might take, but I think I will continue doing it until I feel literally no more resistance within myself when I write out my beliefs and until I also 100% believe them, essentially until they are deeply embedded into my sub-conscious and have replaced my old negative beliefs.

In terms of action taking, the week went extraordinarily well, I suppose it may have been partially due to the fact that my college hand-in deadline was but a week away as well, nevertheless, I haven't seen myself so productive and engaged in a long time, I got as good as everything done and also have a good feeling about my results.

Also, I think it might help to clarify what I'm referring to when I'm on about taking action consistently, so to help illustrate; these are my current goals and the actions I want to take consistently towards them.

-I am now graduating college with amazing grades for my Foundation of Arts degree (So I want to do my project work regularly and manage my time well and receive distinctions for my projects)
-I am now vastly improving my drawing skills (Taking consistent action for me here would be to practice drawing 2 hours daily (excluding weekends) and brush up on my digital art skills)
-I am now developing a profound English vocabulary (This involves training my vocabulary program for 30 min daily, writing out new words and reading two books a month)

Well, that's this weeks entry, I think it was a little too long, but then again it was the first one, so there was a lot to explain.

I would appreciate any ideas, thoughts on this matter, if anyone is might be struggling in the same area, feel free to share your experiences.

[supertom]

your in the urgent square, your thinking i got heaps of time, just make it urgent in your like if i dont do it now than, promise yourself your never gonna do it.

at the end of the day if all else fails i just force myself, and soon it just gets done

[clementc82]

I am struggling the same problems too. Big time.

However, I've seen people who take consistent action and at the end, he became one of the youngest and well paid Internet marketer in the country.

He even appeared on the local newspaper. That's simply amazing.

The story behind it was, whenever he thought of the family and how his mum is not being able to support the family, it gives him the drives work much harder and generate the income to support his family. He's only 22 this year.

I think if one person is not able to tack consistent action, it is because he does not have enough reasons or drive to make him keep going.

Some of the Internet marketers I know do the same thing. They said to themselves that no matter what happens, they are not going back to the 9 - 5 rat race. It eventually also forces themselves to take consistent action.

Also, I agree with supertom. I think what really separates the successful people from the unsuccessful people is that, they force themselves to take action. They do feel like, 'Must I do this now?', 'I don't feel like doing it' or 'I'll do it later', but they do it anyway.

I truly think forcing yourself to take action is the crucial part to bring down the wall. When you have brought down the wall, your motivation will come naturally.

Hope this sharing helps.

[Gabriel.B]

Thanks for the motivating comments

I've also tried coming up with a drive that'll push me through anything, but for myself it feels like I have too many personal 'mental barriers' to simply crush through them with my drive. That's why I'm kind of working my way 'around' it, but that's the great thing out PD isn't it? You only get better and better and in time we achieve what we never expected of ourselves =)

But I will keep pushing myself until I get through the barriers!

Thanks guys and good luck too!