What exactly is my problem?....

[SuperDuperDude]

I have also been into the "planning" aspect of personal development. As far back as 14 I used to write goals. But the thing is I have a VERY hard time actually doing things I need to do.

The old saying that insanity is doing the same thing and expecting a different result.... well i'm insane.

Over the years I have always though how I could "manage" my goals better and better. Until I found action outline.... which is great. I use something like Steve's system now.

Anyway... is my problem procrastination or lack of motivation? I need to start doing! Not staring at my goals, and doing very small easy to do tasks.


Anyone got any advice for me?

[MadHyeNa]

Both. Yes.

Let's see-- quickly to the point:

1./ Visualize your success. Think of your goals as already accomplished in the present tense and emerge yourself into that mental imaginary. Mix in all of your senses. Feel the emotions of how great do you feel having accomplished all of your goals!

2./ Do the first step. Yes! Get up, take a deep breath, and take action. Fear of failure blocks your mind. It creates inactvity and, thus, you are idle, procrastinating, practicing wishful thinking and virtually doing nothing productive. By actually taking charge the goals will start working for you.

Realize that you can fail. Be nice to yourself and learn from your mistakes. Consider each failure as a challenge. Run your own mind and control your own life rather than suffering and being controlled.

Assume complete responsibility for the quality of your life. You are here at this state because of your past actions. Take charge of your life, grab the steering wheel of your life and start working toward your goals with a burning desire. First steps are always the hardest. So what? Would you preffer telling stories to your grandsons/daughters how you procrastinated or rather inspire them by your absolute willingless to take access and decisiviness. Think!

Step #1 fires up your motivation knowing what to expect from your future idealized self and step #2 diminishes the effects of procrastination.

You can read and listen to motivational speakers that serve as an addition to step #1. Reading biographies, listening to seminars and so forth helps you to fire up your motivation even more. Consider it as "feeding the fire of your burning desire." Do it, do it!

But then, by being in the phase of this motivational hype feeling unbeatable and powerful, take the first steps! Listening to motivational speakers, reading short stories and quotes have a temporary effect. Take action while being in that state. As long as their effects diminish you will be already right in the middle of your actions and you will fuel your own motivation without relying on external sources.

Split your goals into smaller sub-goals. As soon as you achieve one of those, you will feel energized and your confidence increases. Rinse & Repeat.

[Tam9]

According to SR you don't need to be doing any of this - just sit back and observe.

Sorry, I had to say that, however perhaps you are trying too hard. When it comes to personal growth somethings can be planned and others can't. It's hard to say which challenges will come your way and when. Maybe you should just work on which qualities you want to acquire and use them when the time comes. If anything you may be trying too hard.You don't sound like you're unmotivated or a procrastinator.

[nightdiamond]

Hi Superduperdude, can you give us some specific examples if that's all right?

This is what I mean when I comment about trying to manifest a vague intention or goal. If I were your mind, or the universe and you wanted me to manifest something, or solve this problem, the words personal development, planning, goals, and procrastination would be too vague for me to give you what you want or manifest a solution to the problem.

Let's see what we can help you with....

[stephencp]

"1./ Visualize your success. Think of your goals as already accomplished in the present tense and emerge yourself into that mental imaginary. Mix in all of your senses. Feel the emotions of how great do you feel having accomplished all of your goals! "

This is great advice, but don't just do it once, or even once a day. Do it EVERY HOUR. This will be the fuel that will fire your motivation. Don't worry about forcing action. Just keeping doing #1 until you can't stand it and HAVE to do something.

Stephen

The Internet Largest Free Give Away Ever - ****************************

[Kaspian]

In the beginning, I would keep it simple and choose measurable goals. For example, if you want to learn a language, read about finance, and meditate, you could commit to 30 minutes of language study, 30 minutes of reading, and 15 minutes of meditation every day. Plan a time of day that you consistently reserve for working on each goal. (I love writing at 4:30am, for instance.) Make a chart with a column for each day of the month and another column for each goal. Keep that chart in view, either a file on your computer that you keep open or on a piece of paper posted somewhere you spend a lot of time. Record your progress.

After 30 days, see how you did. What worked? What didn't? What can you change so that accomplishing your goals is even easier and more fun?

For me, deciding to write something (anything) 3-5 times per week didn't work well, but committing to doing the Morning Pages daily was easy. (See Julia Cameron's book The Artist's Way for more details on the Morning Pages.) Basically, being specific about what I wanted to do and why made a big difference. Another example: I had some trouble with daily meditation because I wasn't sure what I wanted to get from it. I'm still working on this one, but as I refine the goal and the purpose behind it, I'm having an easier time keeping my commitment to it.

Also, don't attempt too much at first. In June and July I decided to make sure I played horn at least 5 minutes per day. Suddenly, practicing daily was easy, most days I played for at least an hour, and even those times when I only played for 5-10 minutes could be counted as successes. Feeling successful made it easy to want to continue being successful.

[stayfly]

Originally Posted by SuperDuperDude

I have also been into the "planning" aspect of personal development. As far back as 14 I used to write goals. But the thing is I have a VERY hard time actually doing things I need to do.

The old saying that insanity is doing the same thing and expecting a different result.... well i'm insane.

Over the years I have always though how I could "manage" my goals better and better. Until I found action outline.... which is great. I use something like Steve's system now.

Anyway... is my problem procrastination or lack of motivation? I need to start doing! Not staring at my goals, and doing very small easy to do tasks.


Anyone got any advice for me?

I am very similar in terms of I'm generally a much better planner than doer.

my recommendations are:

- make sure your action plan is very specific and very doable
- gradually increase the amount of action you take daily with the goal to one day be someone who takes massive action
- make sure your "why" for achieving the goal is clear and strong enough to motivate you to take consistent action
- celebrate each action you do by making yourself feel great each time you take a step closer to you goal
- identify any potential roadblocks that may be stopping you from taking action and destroy those roadblocks

I hope that help

[realignedliving]

Honestly? I think the problem is lack of motivation. You don't sound like you're lost on how to get plan, or how to set goals, so I won't bother throwing that information your way. But a lack of motivation leads to procrastination, which really kills any shot of completing a goal. (And if you DO need help setting up a goal and starting a project, I wrote a blog post on how to set up a short term project!)

My suggestion? Just DO something. Don't think about it. Just do one little thing towards your goal. Then a little while later, do another. Keep track of what you do somehow (write it down, mark it on a calendar, etc.), and you should have some motivation eventually. Good luck!

[John Hill]

We have all heard about the law of attraction, well the Law of Action is all about how you can immediately start the ball rolling.

John

[Peter S C]

Originally Posted by realignedliving

Just DO something. Don't think about it. Just do one little thing towards your goal.

I like this advice. I am all for self-analysis, setting goals, planning, thinking, etc.... but at the end of the day you need to take action to achieve your goals and live in such a way that is in alignment with your principles.

As someone said, find your roadblocks.... then destroy them .

[Ralphiej]

I was in the same spot a few years ago. I knew exactly what I wanted. I thought about it, I prayed about it, and I planned it all out. The result, nothing. I finally realized that not trying and not doing were my problems but I felt like I didn't know how to try or do.

Visualizing turns into wishes if you are not working towards your goal. Writing them down is good but internally you may have not fulley commited to doing the things you wrote down.

Here is what worked for me

Think of the first two steps towards your goal. Then while understanding what your final goal is, make step two your goal. For example, the first thing I needed to do to build my website was to choose a host and then buy a name. The host was step 1, the domain step 2. Well when I picked a domain name my thoughts began to force me to get the host before the name was taken. Thus completing steps 1 and 2 at the same time. Then my goal was to find affiliate links to put on my site. Well I had to build a site first right? Once I found the affiliate programs that I wanted to sign-up for, it forced me to build and publish my site. And so on. Thinking one step ahead helped me advance much faster than any other technique. Hope that helped.