Why It’s Hard To Follow Through
Why You Might Never Actually Take Action
By chris danilo on Sep 25, 2017 05:31 am
You’ve been trained to NOT take action since the beginning.
Procrastinating on school projects. Cramming for exams. Sound familiar?
How about pushing the meeting back until next week? Telling yourself you’ll start working out once x, y, or z happens first?
Well, these habits are also related to the way your mind and body work. By not practicing a habit of action, we are practicing a habit of inaction.
This is critical.
Your brain adapts to new environments, situations, and stimuli. It’s called neuro-plasticity. (citation: Hebbian Theory) It’s how you can stink at playing piano on day 1, but become proficient after a few years. You’ve literally rewired your brain to perform a new task that you couldn’t do before.
THIS, is learning.
Which means that no matter what, everyday, every second, you’re learning. When you’re out there practicing, and when you’re inside watching TV. Your brain’s only job is to adapt to what’s in front of it.
The less you do with it, the better your brain gets at doing less. The more you do with it, well, you get the picture.
Obviously, this means that building a habit of taking action takes time, intentional effort, and consistency. It also means you’ve got to unlearn a bunch of nasty habits (behavior habits and thought habits) that you picked up in school and from the office.
Tools and strategies for battling non-gen and other psychological barriers
The hardest part of changing your mindset is habit.
The mind is good at doing what it’s always done, so you’ve got a lifetime of habits to relearn! Don’t expect this to happen quickly. Unrealistic expectations can lead to unnecessary anxiety, guilt, and depression.
We’ve spent a lot of time and intentional effort building tools and strategies that will empower you to create a habit of action with small, consistent actions (and accountability partners).
***Side note: if you’d like to join a community of folks who are like-minded and are looking for accountability partners like you, you can join the Private Relentless Community Facebook Group.***
So how do we change our brains?
You guessed it. Small, daily, consistent actions. Slowly pushing the flywheel, one revolution at a time until the momentum begins to push the flywheel for us.
Habits require 3 things to work:
A stimulus, a behavior, and a reward.
Smell smoke, light a cigarette, get a nicotine hit.
Clean your house, spray Febreeze, get a pleasant smell.
The sound of your alarm clock, getting out of bed, grogginess.
Starting to make sense?
Here’s one of the most undervalued keys to changing a habit:
Kicking habits is easier when you replace one or more pieces of the puzzle.
You’ve been trained by school, work, and social norms NOT to take action. It’s this reason that most people never do.
But not you.
2 Minute Action:
What’s a habit you want to kick?
What is your current stimulus, behavior, and reward?
What might you change to alter your behavior?
Increase the reward? Take it away? Change the time you wake up? Plug your phone in on the other side of the room, away from your bed?
Would love to hear your thoughts on this, especially on the specific habits you’re trying to start or break right now.
“You have everything you need to build something far bigger than yourself.”
– Seth Godin