Thursday, December 24, 2015

You can stop telling yourself lies now

Are you conditioning yourself to believe your own lies?  Before you say, "no". Think about it.  Are there patterns in your life that you have come to believe to just "be"?  Well, if the answer is yes, I would challenge you to challenge that thinking.  Why do things happen in patterns in our lives?  Well, there are number of reasons, but one of the biggest is that we create those patterns through our beliefs and corresponding behaviors.

Here's an example.  Last week I had scheduled a personal day to be alone and work on my 2016 goals and some longer range plans for some further vision I have for my life.  Great idea.  Well, unbeknownst to me, my wife had planned to take the exact same personal day off.   Great husband/wife communication, huh?  Yeah, that's beside the point.  The point is that my solitary day at home was blown.  Instead, I spent the day with her doing some odds and ends.  It was an enjoyable day, but I got exactly 0% of my future planning accomplished.

Fast forward to this week - Monday morning.  I'm looking at my week and wondering, "When will I do this 2016 goal setting?".  Monday-Tuesday are work days, Wednesday is day off, Thursday - Saturday are Christmas Eve, Christmas Day and my birthday.  So, what's the obvious choice?  Wednesday, right?  Of course.  But, here's the lie I told myself.  "You can't schedule that for Wednesday.  Your whole family is going to be home and you'll want to just stay home and hang with them.  You won't leave them at home and do the work you know is vital to next year's focus."  Why did I tell myself that lie?  Because that has been my pattern lately.  For good or bad (probably bad), lately I've been sloppy at keeping appointments with myself when it's easier to break them.  So, since I was in this negative pattern that I've created, I assumed I would keep on with this negative pattern.  Amazing how the negative dialogue in your head can take hold!  That dialogue was wrong.

Here's what I did right.  I went ahead and scheduled that day (It was yesterday), and before I could spin all the reasons I should skip that appointment with myself, I let my wife know (via email, because it was like 5am at the time) that I would be gone most of the day working on my future goals.  That communication with her set that commitment more solidly.  

Know what happened?  Throughout the day Monday and Tuesday, my excitement and planning took off  for my personal vision day.  When I woke up yesterday, I could hardly wait to get started.  Bottom line.  It was the most effective planning day I've had in years, maybe ever.  And it almost didn't happen because I almost believed a lie I told myself.

Today, I want to encourage you to  re-write the story you're telling yourself.  What lies do you tell yourself that you've begun to believe?  It would be interesting to hear them and it would be powerful in you overcoming them if they were written out in public.  Good luck.

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