When things don’t go our way, we sometimes choose to put all the blame on circumstances outside of our control.

But sometimes (perhaps more often than we’d like to admit), we create our own shortcomings because of our own choices (aka self-sabotage).

I’m no exception to this. 

I definitely catch myself at times taking actions that don’t fully support my goals. And the truth is: no matter how much work we’ve done on ourselves to become self-aware, we all experience moments of self-sabotage throughout our life.  

These moments of self-sabotage typically come from three major fears: fear of the unknown, fear of rejection, and fear of responsibility. If we’re able to figure out how we tend to self-sabotage, we can begin to address them. 

The following are common ways and examples of how we self-sabotage on a daily basis:

• Creating self-imposed rules that promote procrastination aka “waiting for the perfect opportunity.”
• Spending energy on low priority items versus our top objectives.
• Too much planning with no execution.
• Having an ‘all or nothing’ mentality and not being grateful for what is.
• Getting caught up, and lost in, our negative inner dialogues.
• Taking on too much, too quickly.
• Sticking to ineffective methods simply because they’re familiar.
• Ignoring a problem, hoping it will go away.
• Waiting to act until a problem gets too big.
• Letting insignificant circumstances power over our actions.

For me, it’s waiting for the perfect circumstances and giving too much energy to low-priority things that keeps me from sometimes seeing the results I want. For my most recent guest of Are You Being Real?, Biet Simkin Glass, it was not addressing a heroin addiction that left her feeling like her life had ‘fallen apart.’  

In both of our cases, taking a look at where we are getting in our own way, and gaining a deeper awareness is the 1st step to creating a new perspective and more supportive habits.

Where do you find yourself getting in your own way?  

Wishing you an amazing week free of self-sabotage, and full of confidence and flow!
 
Much love,
Mark

PS – if you want to hear an amazing story of overcoming self-sabotage, tune in to episode 217 of Are You Being Real.  Acclaimed author, Biet Simkin Glass, shares how she overcame a heroin addiction and other personal trauma – that left her feeling like her life had ‘fallen apart’ to creating the life and career that empowers her to be the best version of herself (and prompted the release of her new book  “Don’t Just Sit There!“