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Have you ever made decisions in your life such as exercising regularly, or spending time to make a goal come true but you get into it and soon you find an excuse or reason to not stick to the plan you made? Many times we do this because we haven’t dealt with the Saboteur in ourselves. Think about it, you sabotage yourself at times by not bringing your workout clothes with you to head to the gym after work. What about when you decide to reach for that goal you have and you use every little excuse as to why you can’t spend the time you put aside on your goal?
We all know that we need to have a balanced life and that there are many areas we want to focus so that we are truly happy. We allocate time for our jobs. We juggle meals and sleep along with our families needs, then we add in a goal or dream that we want to pursue, and attempt to make progress on that when we add in our health by exercising and eating right on top of the other things.
Everyone depending on their emotions on any given day when they awake eventually think they need a day off, whether its due to lack of sleep, feeling overly tired, or you’ve been running at a fast pace for a few months. I don’t need to work on this or go to the gym or whatever it may be. That wouldn’t happen if we planned time for ourselves. Made time to spend with our spouse for date night, or plan a family night so that everyone was on board with your goals.
Here are a few ways you can sabotage yourself:
• Not putting time for yourself, your goals, your spouse or your family on your calendar.
• Not putting time on the calendar to work on your goals specifically.
• Not putting time on your calendar to go to the gym or workout.
• Not planning or preparing meals to help you stick to the eating plan.
• You become busy with being busy on things that aren’t as important that eat of time.
• You tell yourself you will do it tomorrow, or next Monday.
• You tell yourself it’s not that important to focus on (such as health issues) and you deny you have a problem and ignore it completely.
Does any of that sound like you from time to time? Let me share some tips to defeat that saboteur in your self so that you can be happy and have a life of balance.
1. Write out a list of all of the things that are important to you, family, spouse, job, goals, exercise, weight loss, attending a class, taking a trip and so forth. Take that list and figure out time frames for them. Once a week have a date night and a family night and that will keep the home more balance. Do the same for exercise, goals, classes and so forth.
2. Take that list you created and how much time you need for each and get out your calendar. Begin by putting date night on a specific night every week in your month, and do the same for family time. Figure out when would be best to fit in your exercise, time to attend that class and which nights and how many hours, then add in study time. Do the same for the eating plan, prepping meals, planning out your food and making it so it’s easy to stick to by being prepared for it.
3. When you find yourself not wanting to stick to your calendar and the plans you have made, get out your journal and begin writing out what is going on inside of you. Ask yourself questions about why you want to change what you have planned. Are you doing too much? Are you not getting enough sleep? Do you have a fear of some type that is holding you back? Really write things out and dig deep to figure it out so you can recognize what you might need to change to improve the situation.
4. Are you getting some negative feedback from your family or friends? Did you take the time to sit down with them and explain what you are trying to do? Did you share your dreams and goals with them so they were also on board and wanting you to succeed and hold you accountable? Communicating with them is the best way for them to know and understand what is going on. You leave your job each day and come home and work every night then that isn’t balance. You have to make time for your family, for your spouse, for seeing your friends, around what you have determined is important to you and your schedule.
5. When you want to stray from that eating plan is it for a good reason? Is there a birthday or party to attend? Are you feeling down or overwhelmed? Perhaps you are having an emotional response that you need to understand and journal out or talk to someone about so you can get past it. Some situations can trigger old responses that you need to break. Create a new habit and stick to it for 21 days and that habit will become a new routine.
6. Evaluate whether you are going at a pace that is too fast or to hard to maintain. We all want to reach our goals and we want to make everyone around us happy too, but we have to understand that we need a balance and without your family and some fun in your life you won’t have any if you work continuously. Get out the calendar and plan times for fun, to relax, to take a trip and just do something new and different for a few hours or a few days.
7. Cut back on things that eat up time, such as social media and television. Could you get more done if you didn’t watch shows every single night? Figure out which shows are your absolute favorites and utilize the recording devices in your life so you can enjoy them but at a time that you have scheduled to relax or have some fun. Watch how much time you spend on social media. A few minutes on Facebook can turn into hours if you aren’t careful. If you happen to be on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, Tumblr and more it can start adding up quickly when you check one after the other and that doesn’t count for emails.
8. Take time to evaluate and measure your progress. Every month look at what you managed to get done. Did you stick to your plan for exercise say three days a week? Did you have family night and date night as planned? Did you need more time for studying than you had calculated and put in your calendar? Did you get off of your eating plan and now have to not only plan out meals, but prepare things ahead of time to make it easier to stick to? Everything you said was important is possible but you have to have a plan and you have to stick to the one you create. If it’s not working then why not? Do you need an hour more sleep than you are giving yourself? Do you need to devise a plan when work makes you stay late? It is all doable but you have to figure out what you will do in advance when things don’t work out just as you want them to. Change the things that aren’t working for you but never ever give up.
As you can see sometimes it’s the mindset that you have that will allow you to be successful with the things you hold important in your life and schedule. Sometimes it’s being better prepared for the things that do come up and how to handle them. Other times it’s telling yourself you made progress and things are going in the right direction and no matter what – don’t give up. Just remember their will always be challenges that arise, but it’s how you handle them that determines whether you will be successful at having a balanced life. Do you really want those goals you have listed? What about them is causing you to sabotage yourself and not making them come true? Conquer your saboteur and you will become happy and successful at anything you choose.
I hope that this post helped you in some way address issues you had been avoiding to deal with in your life. Leave me a comment below letting me know how you have overcome those moments that you became the saboteur.
Have a blessed week!